Behind the Scenes- Team 2 takes on yoga fundraiser and senior project

 

Every story our team has worked on, Tess, Stephanie, Priya and I have been able find something truly interesting within the Cal Poly community. For the past two weeks my team and I have has the pleasure of working together with a group of  Child Development seniors from Cal Poly that have been working on a senior project dedicated to helping those with autism spectrum disorder. Their goal was to see how yoga can be used as a supplemental, therapeutic therapy for children with autism. Besides their initial project, they wanted to do something more to directly help the community.

“I really enjoyed working on this story. It’s great to see learn by doing transition from the classroom into something much more,”  stated Tess Rossi.

On Sunday, May 19 Priya and Stephanie drove through the pouring rain to attend the group’s Yoga and Flow fundraiser event held at Ancient Peaks Winery in Santa Margarita. This fundraiser invited people to come and practice yoga together and raise funds for Central Coast Autism Spectrum Center. The event was not only fun, but had great visuals. Stephanie, who was on multimedia this week was able to capture some great images.

“My favorite part of this story was actually going to the event out in Santa Margarita, seeing all the girls work and what they had been planning for the event really come together,” said Priya Sodlapur.

The group was able to raised about $1500 that should help the Central Coast Spectrum Center to fund summer camps they hold for children each year. Setting up an event was no easy feat, “we had to get everything approved every step of the way, and then just putting in all this work…we knew that there was so much potential for the event, so we really fought through that,” said McKenna Burns, Child Development senior.

“It was really interesting learning about the different methods used for autism. I thought the event was such a great idea,. It was really cool seeing so many people join for such a great cause,” stated Stephanie Garibay.

The process for capturing the story overall went very well. Besides a rough drive through a torrential downpour Sunday, everyone had a great time learning more about how yoga’s ability to relax and de-stress can be an especially helpful outlet to help children with autism. Although I am an amateur when it comes to practicing yoga, I know first hand how simultaneously soothing and strenuous it can be. I cannot wait to see more studies and projects done on how it can be medically and mentally beneficial (maybe insurance could start covering it).

Being on the research side of things this week, I was able to find some interesting information and studies already being conducted, using yoga as an alternative therapy. It wasn’t totally surprising, but it was great to find more technical information on the topic. On twitter I was able to get a decent amount of likes showing interest in the story. My uncle also reached out to me and mentioned his Fiance, a yoga teacher, knew someone teacher a children’s yoga class and believes that it is beneficial to all children. I think we all saw the potential from the beginning from the curious reactions from classmates, community members and ourselves.  

Our  group is so glad to have been able to learn so much this week!