Hugger Mugger was established in 1986 to help people in their practice of yoga. 38 years later, we still maintain the philosophy that it is important to assist the people in our community. Throughout the years, we have donated our time and products to a number of different charities. A percentage of all online sales is donated to a different organization each quarter. Thank you for the difference you will make when you choose a new Hugger Mugger product.

Q1 Donations: Veterans Yoga Project

We may not always remember this, but military personnel, first responders, and physical and mental health caregivers are essential to our collective wellbeing. These professionals protect our physical, mental and emotional health and freedom. All too often, the people who support us lack the kind of support they so readily provide. That’s where Veterans Yoga Project (VYP) comes in.

Dr. Daniel J. Libby first conceived of Veterans Yoga Project while doing post-doctoral work at Yale University Department of Psychiatry in Connecticut. According to VYP’s website, “while providing psychotherapy for veterans recovering from PTSD, he found that those who developed empowering self-regulating practices had better outcomes—they moved through post-traumatic stress to post-traumatic growth more quickly and gracefully.”

Libby writes, “A turning point in the founding of VYP occurred before the fourth ‘mindful yoga’ class I had ever taught. One of my veterans approached me and told me that he had stopped taking his sleep medications, because now he could meditate to go to sleep. That moment was profound. The pride with which he told me this was palpable. It’s as if he was no longer a broken man who couldn’t manage the simplest of human functions. Instead he was empowered to use his own mind, his own breath, his own body to live and sleep, in a way that brought him more ease and more joy. He practiced every day. Eventually, he went on to lead morning meditations in his own community at a local yoga center.”

Veterans Yoga Project Takes Off

Libby taught his first “Mindful Yoga Therapy” training in 2010. From there, the organization blossomed. In 2013, VYP hosted its first annual veterans retreat at Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana. In 2014, the organization received 501 c 3 status. From there, the program has grown exponentially. Partnering with VA facilities and yoga studios across the U.S. and Canada, they reached 20,000 annual vet visits by the end of 2018.

When many studios closed during COVID, VYP began offering online classes. They currently offer 30 online classes per week, in addition to their on-site classes. The classes are free and open to all veterans, first responders and caregivers through an app you can download on their website.

The classes provide not only yoga and meditation instruction; they also provide community. VYP Chief Executive Officer Brianna Renner is a veteran herself. She began practicing yoga after retiring from the service. She says, ”Not only did yoga practice help me with my own anxiety and depression, I was also part of a group and felt a sense a belonging since I’d left the Marine Corps. While the yoga community has different beliefs than the vet community, the camaraderie is very much the same. The level of support that the yoga community provides mirrors the support of the military community. There’s a cohesion that happens. When I’d go to yoga, we were moving and breathing together, kind of like cadence and drill. It felt like home to me.”

Trauma Training for Vets

Veterans Yoga Project’s flagship program is its Mindful Resilience for Trauma Recovery Training (MRT). Registered with International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), the program focuses on trauma-sensitive teaching practices, delving into the science behind trauma and best practices for helping people manage post-traumatic stress disorder.

This training applies not only to military-based trauma. In 2021, VYP launched Mindful Resilience for Compassion Fatigue (MRCF) to help professional and family caregivers. “Trauma doesn’t care whether you’ve served in uniform,” says Renner. “We serve the vet community, but we understand that these tools can be applicable to any audience.”

MRT training utilizes what they call a SPACE checklist. “The acronym stands for safety, predictability, accessible, and controllable environment,” says Renner. “We remind students that this is their practice. They’re in control of their body. We offer suggestions, but their agency in the process is most important. The SPACE checklist is especially appropriate for the classes held in a facility. When I teach, I don’t do Sanskrit, I don’t play music, I’m not touching anybody.“

How Veterans Yoga Project Changes Lives

“There have been a lot of profound moments for people who go through practice and training,” says Renner. “Vets are now teaching other vets. To say it’s life changing might be a bit dramatic, but I’ve seen it.”

A recent 200-hour Mindful Resilience Yoga Teacher Training graduate writes:

“When I retired from the military, I wasn’t prepared or trained to transition from either the service or from my combat and wartime engagement/deployments. I don’t regret my service, but I felt deserted at my finish line.  I was, in a sense, blown apart as a person, and never taught how to piece myself back together to function well. Not even the VA does that with any reliability.

“What VYP has managed to do is identify, organize and deliver a program that provides recovery tools for veterans to more effectively deal with stress, TBI, PTS, and a myriad of other ailments. VYP has shown us how to gather up our blown apart selves, and carefully put our pieces back in place, and given us training to not only help  keep our pieces in place, but to teach and train other soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen how to do the same thing.  That’s something amazing. That can help heal a lot of damage.

“I found VYP as a widow and retiree who was sad, isolated, depressed, and struggling with PTSD. Yoga and meditation felt like a lifeline back to the surface. The staff of VYP has been more present and engaged than my own family, and it’s because they have walked this path themselves. Holding SPACE has created a new level of safety and trust. The sincerity is real. The honesty is real. The dedication to mission is real. Every single person I have encountered has been authentic, caring, incredibly knowledgeable, resourceful, creative and dedicated to helping. I am so thrilled to be a yoga teacher and to be able to give this ease to others.”

Join Us in Supporting Veterans Yoga Project

For the quarter spanning January through March 2024, a percentage of Hugger Mugger’s net sales will go to Veterans Yoga Project. Please join us in supporting this organization’s crucial and inspiring work.

From now through the end of June 2023, a percentage of your Hugger Mugger purchases will go to support Feeding America. Please join us in supporting this organization’s vital work.

According to a 2022 report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 13.5 million, 10.2 percent, of American households experienced food insecurity in 2021. Twelve-and-a-half percent of households with children experienced food insecurity at some time during the same year. Food insecurity is not unique to particular areas of the country, or to rural, urban or suburban communities. Food insecurity crosses all strata of our society.

Fortunately, many food banks around the U.S. belong to the Feeding America network, which improves their access to healthy, nourishing foods. The Feeding America network is America’s largest food-relief program. The organization partners with individuals, charities, businesses, and governments to support food-relief around the country.

4 Ways Feeding America Fights Hunger

1. Food recovery: Each year in the U.S., 72 billion pounds of food go to waste. Feeding America partners with food manufacturers, restaurants, grocery stores and farmers to recover these foods and distribute them to food banks.
2. Providing access to nourishing foods: What we eat matters. Fresh foods are essential for optimum health. Feeding America’s “Produce Matchmaker” partners with farmers to expedite distribution of surplus produce to food banks. In addition, mobile food pantries serve hard-to-reach areas of the country. Finally, their Meal Connect program provides direct access between food businesses and the Feeding America network.
3. Opening the door to healthy eating: Feeding America helps food pantries put healthy foods front and center. The organization empowers food banks to provide information about healthy food choices to its patrons, including hands-on demonstrations, cooking classes and taste-testing events. In addition, placing recipe cards in front of fresh produce can inspire patrons to make healthy choices.
4. Educating the public about food insecurity: Feeding America advocates for programs that protect people facing hunger through a policy staff based in Washington, DC, and through the Hunger Action Center, a massive online grassroots advocacy center. The Hunger Action Center consists of an online community of more than 150,000 people who help the organization champion hunger-relief programs at the federal, state and local levels. In order to better understand food insecurity, the organization’s Map the Food Gap program conducts extensive research. This research guides their strategies for helping state and local food programs to serve their patrons most effectively.

At Hugger Mugger Yoga Products we are excited to partner with Girls Inc. for the next three months through our non-profit program. Through September 30th, we will donate a percentage of our net profits to this vital organization.

Women’s empowerment may seem like a new phenomenon. But in reality, at least in America, the seeds of this movement were planted as far back as 1864. Girls Inc., originally known as Girls Clubs of America, formed to serve girls and young women who were experiencing upheaval in the aftermath of the Civil War. Girls Clubs of America aimed to create a safe gathering place for girls to learn and to share in sisterhood.

What Girls Inc. Does

The network of local Girls Inc. nonprofit organizations serves girls ages 5 to 18 at more than 1,500 sites in 350 cities across the United States and Canada. They deliver programming in three areas:

• Healthy Living: This includes managing reproductive health, developing healthy relationships and forming sound body image.
• Academic Enrichment and Support: Support for academic performance; high school graduation and post-secondary education; and goal setting in the areas of personal life, education and career.
• Life Skills: Support girls to use their own voices and advocate for others, become resilient and increase grit. Life Skills support also helps girls develop an ability to regulate emotion.

How the Program Works

The organization partners with schools to provide before-, during- and after-school programming. Girls can attend a Girls Inc.-facilitated health class during the day. Or they can come to a Girls Inc.-designated safe, girls-only space after school. After-school programs expand their access to STEM education, improve literary skills, develop healthy relationships, get on track to graduate, and prepare for college and future careers.

In addition to partnering with schools, local organizations often work with other community and like-minded partners. They aim to provide girls with as many opportunities as possible to support growth and learning. Corporate and cause-related partnerships also provide mentorship programs.

The Girls Inc. experience consists of three facets:

• People: Strong and lasting relationships with Girls Inc. facilitators are at the core of the organization’s work. Mentors are trained youth-development professionals  who develop lasting mentoring relationships with the girls they serve.
• Environment: The environment is a safe, all-girl, pro-girl space at school or in a Girls Inc. center where there is a sisterhood of support.
• Programming: Programming includes research-based, hands-on, minds-on activities to help girls become healthy, educated and independent.

For more information on the organization, and how you can get involved, visit girlsinc.org.

Trees are our partners on the planet. Through photosynthesis, they absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. A single tree can absorb up to 330 pounds of carbon dioxide annually, while providing enough oxygen for a whole family. An integral thread in the web of life, trees keep our entire planet healthy. Trees reduce the need for heating and cooling. Their root systems filter rainwater. Trees reduce erosion and provide habitat for urban wildlife. The life-giving properties of trees are what prompted journalist and former Salt Lake resident and Pepper Provenzano to found TreeUtah in 1988. TreeUtah’s mission is to improve Utah’s quality of life by enhancing the environment through tree planting, stewardship and education.

Putting Down Roots

In its 30-plus years, TreeUtah has planted more than 500,000 trees with the help of 150,000 volunteers. Most planting takes place on Utah’s public lands, from city parks to schoolyards to national forests. The organization coordinates with public entities and municipalities to beautify parks and other public areas.

In the past few years, TreeUtah has focused on growing to provide educational tree planting throughout Utah. “We’ve increased statewide presence and partnerships. We want to be available as a non-profit partner throughout the state rather than just Salt Lake City and Provo.” says Executive Director Amy May. “We want to be the tree-planting organization for the state.”

TreeUtah currently operates with a full-time staff of four dedicated individuals. These include executive director, planting coordinator, education and volunteer coordinator, and bookkeeper. Between 2,500 and 4,000 people volunteer each year to participate in TreeUtah’s events.

Even during COVID, TreeUtah planted between 7,500 to 12,000 trees each year. In spring of 2020, when everything shut down, TreeUtah staff members and their families planted all the trees they’d ordered for volunteer events. As the pandemic progressed, and they learned more about gathering outdoors safely, they expanded to groups of 10 volunteers and later, groups of 50. Now they’re back to pre-COVID numbers.

Volunteering for TreeUtah

Some volunteers come to plantings individually; others come in groups. TreeUtah partners with dozens of companies whose employees get together to plant trees. People bring their families and enjoy each others’ company outside the workplace. You can customize tree-planting events to fit your group. For example, families will often plant a tree to honor a newborn or a family member who has passed.

TreeUtah follows up on the trees they and their volunteers plant. They make sure the trees they and their volunteers plant are properly watered and cared for to improve their survival rates.

Before she became executive director of TreeUtah, Amy May volunteered for the organization for more than 15 years. “I loved volunteering, when the opportunity came up, it seemed like a great fit,” she says. “I love gardening and planting trees, and love to be involved in an organization that engages people in nature.”

TreeUtah Teaches About Trees

TreeUtah’s educational programs are a centerpiece of their mission. Schools have precious little funding for things like landscaping. So TreeUtah combines tree planting for schools with innovative curriculum tied to state core science standards. They teach children about the importance of trees. At the same time, they leave schoolyards a little greener. New research suggests  who tree canopy in schoolyards benefits students. Benefits include higher test scores for students. TreeUtah sends home materials with students so families know a little more about how to plant in their own yards, too.

The organization also provides adult educational opportunities. Adults can learn about planting, pruning and tree identification. Tree identification classes take place in the winter, before trees have leafed out. This shows participants that leaves are not the only way to identify trees.

How Can You Help?

If you’re interested in volunteering, either as an individual or with a group, you can find out more at the volunteer link on TreeUtah’s website. By registering to volunteer, you don’t need to make a long-term commitment. You can attend open tree plantings whenever you choose. TreeUtah posts open plantings on Facebook events page or at treeutah.org/events.

Every Saturday in April, May, September and October, TreeUtah holds public events. You can sign up the week of the event. They also sponsor after-work events. “You don’t need to have a green thumb to volunteer,” says Amy. TreeUtah provides the tools, gloves, etc., and educates volunteers about the trees they’ll be planting and how to plant them.

A veteran tree planter and educator, Amy says. “I love the way that tree planting gets people of all ages engaged in the nature in their own back yards. It’s an opportunity to volunteer with an organization where you can bring your kids, your grandparents—everyone is welcome, all abilities and age levels. It’s a fun way to make a positive impact in your community. The whole point is to teach people how to plant trees and why. So many people say they don’t have a green thumb. We open up a new world to people that they might not normally get to experience. Hopefully, they go home and plant more trees in their yards.”

Through the end of June, a portion of your purchases will go to TreeUtah to support their work in the community. Hugger Mugger is proud to partner with this great organization.

In 1920, a committee of idealists (including Helen Keller) decided to start an organization. They named it the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and they had a mission. Their goal was to support to citizens whose constitutional protections had been violated, and they did exactly that.

Over the last 100 years, the ACLU has evolved into a powerful champion of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and its amendments. Today, the organization has 1.5 million members, 300 staff attorneys, thousands of volunteer attorneys, and 54 locations nationwide.

The ACLU is officially nonpartisan, provides legal assistance in civil liberties cases, and lobbies for the protection of citizens’ rights. Undoubtedly, they fight for freedom of speech and religion, equal rights for minority groups, privacy rights, the right to due process, and much more. The ability to have a say in our representative government is fundamental to democracy. To assist, ACLU filed 20 lawsuits to help protect voting rights in the 2020 election year.

Protecting the rights of Black and Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) is central to the ACLU’s mission. Their website states, “To create a world where ‘we the people’ truly means all of us, we must dismantle systemic racism and work to repair centuries of harm inflicted on communities of color.”

Hugger Mugger Yoga Products is proud to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the vital work of the ACLU. From October through December, a percentage of our net profits will go to support this organization. Please join us in supporting the inalienable rights of all American citizens.

For more information on The American Civil Liberties Union and how you can get involved, visit aclu.org.

According to the USDA’s 2019 Household Food Insecurity in the United States report, 37 million people face hunger in the U.S. today — including more than 11 million children and almost 5.5 million seniors. In Utah, 374,000 people—one in eight overall, and one in seven children—live with the daily threat of hunger. Last year Utah Food Bank, founded in 1904, distributed 43.3 million pounds of food, the equivalent of  36.1 million meals, to individuals and families throughout the state.

Housed in an 86,000-square-foot warehouse stacked floor to ceiling, the food bank’s Salt Lake City distribution center actually has no pantry. Rather, it distributes food and supplies to 150 partner organizations in all 29 counties in the state. They also have a Southern Utah distribution center in St. George to help with this effort.

It’s difficult to imagine the immense scope of the good this organization does every day. Even when you stand inside the ginormous building and contemplate the stacks, it’s hard to grasp. Here’s another mind-boggling statistic:  The food bank fills and empties its warehouse an average of 22 times a year.

Feeding Hungry Kids and Seniors

Utah Food Bank sponsors several major programs targeted to specific statewide needs:

• Kids’ Cafe:  The food bank’s Kids’ Cafe staff prepares 2,200 meals each weekday and transports them to 86 after-school sites. Last year the food bank provided almost 399,974 meals to kids who might otherwise go hungry.
• Mobile School Pantry: Utah Food Bank’s newest program, Mobile School Pantry, complements both school meal programs and the food bank’s other childhood hunger programs. Each month during the school year, their truck arrives on the school property where Utah Food Bank staff and volunteers assist students and their parents as they sign in and receive food. Last year, through distribution at 67 school sites, the program reached 304,845 individuals, 169,373 of whom were children. This school year, the program is serving 84 sites.
• Food Boxes: This program provides seven to nine days worth of food to seniors, disabled persons and people who live alone and either have no access to transportation or no relatives who can take them to their local food pantry. They receive a variety of perishables—veggies, fruits, dairy products, and canned and packaged foods. Last year Utah Food Bank distributed 43,917 food boxes.
• Mobile Pantries: Last year, the Utah Food Bank served more than 224,000 individuals through their Mobile Pantry program. Mobile pantries provide additional support to individuals facing hunger with staples, including as much fresh food as possible, in communities that are underserved by traditional brick-and-mortar pantries. Mobile pantries also bring fresh food to areas where clients lack sufficient transportation to access the nearest food pantry.

It Takes a Village

The food bank’s headquarters employs 90 full-time associates. In addition, they benefited from 83,418 hours of volunteer service last year, or the equivalent of 40 full-time employees. Volunteers perform whatever needs to be done at a given moment, including sorting food, performing clerical work, delivering food boxes and cleaning the warehouse.

Volunteers come from all walks of life. Some are as young as five years of age. In the Food Box program, the same volunteer delivers the box to the same house each month. For some recipients, these volunteers may be their only visitors. “It’s more than just a food box for the recipients and the volunteers that deliver the boxes,” says Utah Food Bank’s president and CEO, Ginette Bott. She told me the story of a family who delivered a box to a senior every month for nine years. When the recipient passed, the family paid the funeral expenses. “The relationships that form are phenomenal,” she says.

How You Can Help

The food bank accepts donations in the form of food, money and time. You can donate and sign up for volunteer shifts online. Shifts are 90 minutes and run begin at noon Monday through Thursday, 10:00 am on Friday, and at 8:00 am on Saturday. You can find more information here.

From now through the end of December, a percentage of your Hugger Mugger purchases will go to support the Utah Food Bank.

Have you ever experienced complete silence? It’s exceedingly rare. In our daily lives, we’re constantly receiving input. Traffic noise is always in the background. Heating, cooling, electrical systems—these sounds are constant. We even hear music and commercials while we pump gas.

The first time I experienced complete silence was in the Southern Utah desert. It was profound. I was sitting outside in the Arches National Park campground. When a hawk flew overhead, I could hear its wings beating. That’s when I truly fell in love with the desert.

Utah’s redrock country is indescribable. Its five national parks, scattered across the southern part of the state, boast distinct and unique landscapes. The national monuments and state parks are equally stunning, but not nearly as well protected—although in these times even our national parks are at risk. These lands are sacred to many who live here, and to visitors from around the world. That is why Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) was formed in 1983.

According to their website, “SUWA is the only non-partisan, non-profit organization working full time to defend Utah’s redrock wilderness. Our power comes from people like you from across the nation who want to protect this irreplaceable heritage for all Americans.”

SUWA is run by redrock enthusiasts from all around the country. Twenty-five full-time staff members and hundreds of volunteers work to protect Utah’s unique landscapes. While their mission sounds simple, protecting Utah’s public lands—lands that belong to all of us—is a complicated, multi-pronged process.

SUWA’S Current Concerns

Here are a few of the more pressing issues SUWA is currently addressing, according to longtimeUtah public lands advocate Dave Pacheco, the organization’s Utah Grassroots Organizer:

• Emery County Lands Management Act. This bill, crafted by Orrin Hatch, R-UT, and John Curtis, R-UT, undermines protections for beloved wild lands such as the San Rafael Swell and Desolation and Labyrinth Canyons. SUWA aims to fight the passage of this bill through advocacy and education.
• Protecting wilderness-quality lands from oil and gas development.
• Protecting national monuments, including the recently reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments. SUWA’s Monument Watch program employs the eyes and ears of people in the field to report when lands are being violated.
• Fighting Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) chaining projects. Chaining isan operation where two bulldozers are chained together and driven through juniper forests, mowing down the forests in the interest of “improving wildlife habitat,” although the actual effect of chaining is to increase grazing land. So far, SUWA has successfully negotiated with BLM to keep chaining out of Hamblin Valley, Utah.
• RS2477. This revised statute has been a part of SUWA’s agenda since the beginning. The statute defines wilderness areas as roadless areas of 5,000 acres or more. Seems simple enough, but defining what is and is not a road is subject to interpretation, depending on the beholder’s agenda. People and industries that have wanted to get around the statute have defined such things as cow paths and dry washes as “roads” in order designate the land as unworthy of wilderness designation. “We inventory the roads,” says Pacheco. “If it’s graded, it’s legitimate.”

SUWA’s full-time employees and volunteers share a common goal: to educate the public about the value of these lands and the threats they face, and to utilize on-the-ground protectors as well as legal experts to ensure the lands are protected for future generations to enjoy.

If you talk to anyone who frequents Utah’s redrock country, almost everyone has a story about when they first fell in love with the land. Pacheco says his family’s first trip to Lake Powell, when it was still filling up, as the first time he fell in love with Southern Utah. For me, it was experience true silence. If you love Utah’s redrock country, you can thank SUWA for keeping up the good fight to preserve these precious landscapes.

Get Involved

There are many ways to get involved:

• Take action
• Volunteer
• Join a stewardship project
• Order a lawn sign

You can sign up here to receive emails about SUWA’s current projects and to get involved.

Any one of these disasters would require an overwhelming amount of aid. But when so many disasters occur within a short period, the ability to render significant help is stretched very thin. And there’s much confusion over which organizations are capable of helping most efficiently.

Hugger Mugger has chosen to donate a percentage of our net profits from October through December to Direct Relief International. Direct Relief is rated with four stars—the highest rating given by Charity Navigator. A full 99.4 percent of its donations go directly to aid.

Beginnings

Founded in 1948, DirectRelief began as the William Zimdin Foundation. Zimdin, an Estonian immigrant to California, fled Europe after being targeted by Hitler after characterizing the dictator as a “dangerous fool.” Zimdin began the foundation as a way to help post-war Europeans help themselves, providing loans to help people reestablish themselves.

By the 1950s and 1960s, requests began flooding in from around the world for medical assistance to underserved populations. The organization, by then renamed as Direct Relief, decided that providing medical assistance to underserved populations would have the greatest overall impact. Since then the organization has provided emergency relief to refugees and medically underserved populations around the world.

Direct Relief Now

In October of this year alone, Direct Relief has provided medical supplies, including a 76-ton shipment on October 17th, to Puerto Rico. They have helped partner organization Mexfam procure tents, medical supplies and food for Mexican people displaced by the earthquakes. Since the California wildfires began, Direct Relief has, so far, made 17 deliveries to the California Offices of Emergency Services and Public Health. In addition they have partnered with HOPE hospital to bring health care to Rohinga refugees in Bangladesh.

How You Can Help

Direct Relief encourages online donations. You can choose to focus your donation on relief for Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico, the California wildfires, or the Mexico earthquakes, or you can request that your donation go where it’s most needed. There are other ways to give as well, including donating time, hosting a fundraiser, donating vehicles or planned giving, among many choices.

From now through December 31st, a percentage your Hugger Mugger purchases will go to help Direct Relief’s work around the world.

According to Youthlinc’s website, “Real Life focuses on supporting refugee and immigrant teens who suffer from a variety of issues as they start a new life in Utah. These youth face language, cultural, economic, and educational barriers. Not many after school programs are designed to meet these challenges. Real Life provides engaging, interactive, educational, and “real life” applicable lessons and activities that will help refugee teens become successful adults and contributing members of society.” Real Life even sponsors outings such as bowling, rock climbing and hiking trips to help the new residents integrate into and feel welcome in their new communities.

After receiving the benefits of this program, the two became volunteers and mentors in the same program. Soon, they felt inspired to volunteer for another of Youthlinc’s programs—an international trip to share their skills with communities abroad that were in need of their expertise.

“We encouraged them to apply,” says Justin Powell, Youthlinc’s executive director. “We have a pretty robust financial aid package, so we gave them a scholarship to get them started. They worked hard to design fundraising projects to raise the money to go to Thailand.”

Ultimately, the two went back to where they had been living before they immigrated to the U.S. and were able to help their former community as humanitarian workers. “It was really powerful to seem them change from students receiving aid from a non-profit to students volunteering with a non-profit,” says Powell. “It’s great to see refugees come full circle. It’s very empowering for them to have the opportunity to help return the favor by helping their former communities.”

This is just one story of many that inspire Powell and the hundreds of students who have volunteered for Youthlinc since it began. Youthlinc was formed after Utah secondary schoolteacher Judy Zone took a trip to Kenya with her daughter in 1999. Judy’s daughter had always been service minded and had volunteered in her community during high school. In Kenya, they observed the plight of Kenya’s poor, but noted that unlike in the U.S., Kenya’s homeless and hungry had no volunteers feeding them under the viaducts. This inspired Judy to look for a way to help students make a connection between local and international service.

Over the next year, she conceived of Youthlinc, an organization that would give students the opportunity to experience the happiness that comes from serving others and perspective that comes from experiencing cultures other than their own. In Youthlinc’s first year, 20 students traveled to Kenya to participate in service projects.

Youthlinc’s Local and International Service

Youthlinc grows every year. Last year, 360 students participated in their programs. Add in student leaders and adult mentors, and about 500 people volunteered for Youthlinc last year. In addition, Youthlinc recently added satellite teams in Utah County, Logan, and half-Salt Lake City and half-Southern Utah team. “It’s inspiring to see Youthlinc having an impact elsewhere in the state,” says Powell.

Youthlinc’s volunteers perform both local and international service. Students from 10th grade to grad school are welcome to participate. Participants in their Service Year program perform 80 hours of local community service over nine months before embarking on the international trips. When students join the program, mentors support them to identify their areas of interest. They then gravitate to the populations that most interest them—the elderly, hospice patients, refugee communities and at-risk youth.

International trips take place in June and July. This summer, Youthlinc sponsored 13 service trips. Current service sites are located in Cambodia, Guatemala, Madagascar, Kenya, Nepal, Peru and Thailand. Trips are two weeks long and focus on five different areas of service: education, community health, vocational, business and cultural exchange. Adult mentors oversee projects and educational programs, and provide direction for the student volunteers. Projects depend on the needs of the village and the talents and expertise of those participating in the trips.

Giving is Receiving

In the practice of generosity, it is said that the recipient and giver both receive benefit. As the Buddha said, “Before giving, the mind of the giver is happy; while giving, the mind of the giver is made peaceful; and having given, the mind of the giver is uplifted.” Youthlinc volunteers benefit from their service just as much as do the communities they serve. “Every year we see students having epiphanies and their perspectives evolve and widen,” says Powell. “It’s a really joyful thing.”

Youthlinc welcomes student and adult volunteers to act as mentors to students. To volunteer for Youthlinc, visit their website.

Hugger Mugger Yoga Products is honored to donate a percentage of our net profits to Youthlinc during this quarter. For more information on how you can help Youthlinc, visit their website.

Yoga for Cancer Survivors at Sundance Resort

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From now until December 31st, your Hugger Mugger purchases will benefit A Quality Life Community (QLC). Founded as a resource for cancer survivors and their families, QLC provides complementary support—including free yoga classes at six different Utah locations. The organization’s founder, Amy Conn, sent us the message below, sharing her experience as a cancer survivor and her inspiration to found this wonderful organization:

by Amy Conn

A Quality Life Community celebrates our cancer survivors every day, but in October we get the opportunity to not only celebrate our survivors but specifically our Breast Cancer THRIVERS and SURVIVORS.

As a breast cancer survivor, I remember turning in to shine out. I remember relying on friends and family to help me with my young children. I remember devoting my energy to my yoga community to help, not only heal the parts of my body challenged through surgical, chemo and radiation therapies, but to support the parts of my body “doing their job.” In other words, I introspectively recall the distinction between specific areas of my body functioning at sub par levels with those parts the parts of my body still operating at full force.

I wanted to honor my muscles, my lungs, my heart and my mind. Although chemo temporarily influenced each part of my body (a racing heart rate, a fatigued muscle and a forgetful mind) I know, through yoga, it was my mind-body practice that honored these cancer-free organs and eventually returned me back to my full-functioning self.

I returned as a new body, however. I wasn’t the same as before. I still suffered from “chemo brain” and felt the frustration my children experienced when I continued to forget things or occasionally placed the cereal box in the refrigerator and the milk in the cupboard. But my new body continued with my yoga practice. I earnestly pursued new synapses between mind and body, forever hopeful and confident that I would be able to relay this self-introspection and discovery to a new community of people: a Cancer Thriver/Survivor community. Currently, this is where I (and we) are today.

A Quality Life Community began as a non-profit in November 2011. Although teaching class sessions since 2006, it was my board of directors who encouraged me to become a non-profit organization in order to meet a larger population. We are proud to announce that A Quality Life Community is located in six locations (yoga studios, hospitals and retreat homes) over a 40-mile radius alongside the Wasatch Front. I have now become a board member myself and have turned over director responsibilities to William Held. Together, we support five teachers who have, all but one, been with us since our inception!

A Quality Life Community offers classes to individuals and family members FREE of charge. To contact us or to inquire about classes, please refer to their website: www.aqualitylife.org