By Jennifer Goetz
Staff Writer
The Humanitarian Yoga Club is here to spread physical and mental wellness to the campus. Now a fully recognized club, the Humanitarian Yoga Club aims to combine the art of yoga with community service, helping not only the campus community, but the local and global community as well. This club has already hosted successful events this year and has more events planned for the next upcoming months.
The Humanitarian Yoga Club teamed up with Theta Phi Alpha sorority to host the College’s second annual Yogathon on Sunday, Sept. 20. This all-day event on the ABE lawn was donation-based, with a $3 suggested donation.
“We always do donation-based,” said Gina Costanzo, a junior special education and iSTEM major double and president and founder of the club. “We want to make (yoga) accessible to everybody.”
Yogathon lasted from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. with events throughout the day that varied in difficulty. This gave everyone who attended the chance to either learn some yoga basics, try more advanced techniques or to relax and meditate. Members of this club were quick to praise the event. Juniors Lindsey Drubel and Katie Boaggio, members who attended the Yogathon, both agreed that the event was a success.
“I did the All Levels class in the morning and it was very nice,” said Boaggio, a physics major.
Both Drubel and Boaggio felt that the event was well put together and liked getting henna tattoos that the members provided.
“I think it went really well,” Costanzo said. “We had a good variety of people, so there were different people at the different events instead of the same people coming and staying all day.”
Overall, about 60 people attended Yogathon that day.
Even without a mandatory cost, the club raised $105.
“All the money we earn through fundraising goes right back into the club,” said Monica Murphy, a junior with a self-designed speech language pathology major. With the money raised from this single event, the club can put it toward more activities for the spring.
Another event offered to the on-campus community took place on Sunday, Sept. 27. The Humanitarian Yoga Club and Phi Sigma Sigma hosted a Supermoon Lunar Eclipse Yoga event, which was held on the ABE lawn as well. Students that attended were able to practice yoga late at night and although the supermoon wasn’t visible, the sky was lit up orange, creating a beautiful backdrop.
Aside from the on-campus events, The Humanitarian Yoga Club meets weekly at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays in the Rec Center. At meetings members discuss past events, community service opportunities and up-and-coming events. Afterward, Costanzo, a certified yoga instructor, goes through yoga poses step-by-step so members can learn how to perform the yoga correctly. She demonstrates what to do (and what not to do). This way members will be able to help volunteer to teach yoga to children, people with physical disabilities, or even their friends. At this past weeks meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23, members learned how to complete a full sun salutation.
One of the goals the club has set this semester is to expand its membership.
“So many people didn’t know about the club last semester and we want to get the word out,” Costanzo said.
Costanzo decided that combining humanitarian work and yoga would make a successful club. She wants to “spread what yoga truly is around campus.”
The club encourages students to try yoga because a student may not be the strongest or the most flexible, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do it.
