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Sunday, April 08, 2007

attention: iyengar devotees

i received this via email today:

LETTER TO THE IYILA COMMUNITY
SAVE THE INSTITUTE!


As many of you know, the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles, which has been on Third Street for 22 years, has had a dramatic rent increase, one which the Institute cannot afford to pay. A move to a new location is a necessity, and we on the Fundraising Committee want to let the Southern California Iyengar Yoga community know what is being planned for this year in regards to raising funds and making this transition affordable.

We have again formed a Fundraising Committee to help raise funds for a Capital Campaign. The members of this committee are: Marla Apt, Chris Beach, Lani Daniels, Jennifer Edwards, Adriana DeFranco, Sherry Gould, Allen Grodsky, Diane Gysbers, Judith Lutz, Garth McLean, and Janice Prager. Randee Devlin and Eric Small are co-chairs and Ken Devlin will consult. Manouso Manos will again be our honorary chairperson.

The event will be at the home of Eric Small on Saturday, December 1, 2007. Eric has generously offered to make a sizeable donation to underwrite the expenses. He has already received other substantial pledges for help in our efforts.

A Capital Campaign is very different from the annual fundraiser that we’ve had for the past couple of years. During those efforts, we were successful within our goals to raise funds for the upkeep and modest improvements of the Institute.

The first year we honored our senior teacher, Manouso Manos, and there was a wonderful party and a huge out-pouring of gratitude for Manouso and all that he’s done for our community. We raised upwards of $50,000 from that first event.

The second year we established the Manouso Manos Leadership Award, and Karin O’Bannon received that honor and award from Manouso. Again, the fundraiser was successful and we raised $61,000+.

These were "annual" fundraisers, the first ever held to benefit IYILA. We plan to continue the Manouso Manos Leadership Award again in 2008. However, in this our transition year, we are moving into an imperative "Capital Campaign", one whose stated goal is to SAVE THE INSTITUTE.

This capital campaign has a goal of $250,000. It is possible that we’ll need more than that. At this point we have firm pledges in excess of one-third of this goal. Obviously, we’ve started our efforts. And we’re going to need your help as well to help us achieve our goal.

We at the B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles are a community. Though of course we do serve the local Iyengar Yoga Community, we are here because of the express wishes of B.K.S. Iyengar, whose stated desire is that there exists an Institute bearing his name in Los Angeles. He has bestowed gifts on the Southern California Community by giving his name on this Institute, one of only a few outside India.

Over the years we have received his gifts; now it is time for all of us to join together, in unison, to demonstrate on a much greater level our devotion to Guruji and to this Institute by SAVING THE INSTITUTE with our pledges and funds and work so that we can move forward.

Please join us at the 2007 Fundraiser, a Capital Campaign to SAVE THE INSTITUTE, on December 1, 2007, at the home of Eric Small. More information and details will be forthcoming.

Namaskar,
Randee Devlin and Eric Small
co-chairs of the Fundraising Committee

2 Comments:

Blogger Elsie said...

Oh my gosh! I'm a bit speechless....how sucky is that? I do hope we don't have any more Yoga Orphans, all we want to do is to practice. All we want to do is to build community and this whole rent thing is getting in the way! My heart aches for the Iyengars, they so need that space! Thanks Joni for letting us all know about this, man...may we help them to stay open.

9:46 PM  
Blogger joni said...

what's even more tragic is that the space they're in now will probably get converted into yet another trendy restaurant or high-end boutique once they move out...

11:40 PM  

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