YPSILANTI Bikram Yoga Ann Arbor West studio will hold a special fundraising class to benefit Dawn Farm at 12 p.m. Sunday, July 17.

All proceeds from the class will be donated to Dawn Farm. Walk-in classes at BYAAW (227 N. Maple Road in Ann Arbor) are typically $18. The suggested donation for Sunday's class is $10, but participants may contribute whatever they can.

Dawn Farm is the largest provider of services for people with addictions in Washtenaw County and has been around since 1973. Dawn Farm is a Michigan addiction treatment center with an emphasis on the recovering community as the most important source of healing and recovery support for its clients. Dawn Farm is a 501c(3) non-profit organization.

Were just thrilled to be the recipient of Bikram Yoga Ann Arbor Wests fundraising series, said Dawn Farm President Jim Balmer. We treat lots of people who have no other place to go and this fundraising allows us to take more addicts and alcoholics off the streets.

Weve been in the human services field for 40 years, Balmer continued. The addiction treatment field has collapsed and there just arent that many treatment centers around.

Dawn Farm offers residential and detoxification services to people who are on the streets, as well as outpatient treatment services and transitional housing.

The requested donation is $10 but whatever students can contribute is welcomed. One-hundred percent of the money raised will go to Dawn Farm. Rosenbaum is also dedicating part of the studio to education. Information is made available to the students about the organizations they are donating to.

Studio owner Lora Rosenbaum says she not only believes in social programs but feels it is her responsibility to support them.

There have been so many funding cuts for social program, but social program are so important to our community, she said. This is all about responsibility for local businesses; its our job to give back to social programs, and were not the only ones. Many small businesses give back to the communities"

I am so grateful to be able to be part of a community that gives this to organization, Rosenbaum said. Dawn Farm is also all about giving and healing, just like the yoga. They give people a chance, give every single person a chance and helps people save themselves." Continued...

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Ann Arbor yoga studio to hold fundraising class to benefit Dawn Farm

Susan Bailey balances on a slack line during a class at Highland Lake Yoga on Friday. The owner, Fred Brown, has decided to close his yoga studio after 14 years in business.

FLAT ROCK Friday was the last day of yoga and meditation classes at Highland Lake Yoga, as the studio has closed to benefit both the families of the building's owner and the yogis.

Highland Lake Yoga has operated for 14 years out of a cottage-style building on a plot of garden-covered land originally part of the Highland Lake community in historic Flat Rock. With chicken coops at either end of the building, flower boxes on the windows, tall pine trees and a white peacock that visited regularly, the studio offfered a secluded haven for meditation.

But it was also one room of the cottage housing the landowner's aging mother, who needs continuing care and a space for her resident caretakers to live.

Kerry Lindsey established the Highland Lake community in 1985, and a few years later brought his parents to the cottage, where his mother, Treska Lindsey, raised goats and chickens and planted bountiful gardens.

Jack and Linda Grup now own the 26 acres belonging to the Highland Lake Inn & Resort, while Treska Lindsey continues to reside on land owned by the Lindsey family.

Though Highland Lake Yoga isn't technically part of the resort, it has been open to the inn's visitors, as well as residents of the nearby Highland Lake neighborhoods and rental cottages.

Fred Brown, who has practiced yoga for 45 years and taught for the past 40, began Highland Lake Yoga at the studio in 2000 and introduced gravity-defying techniques to individuals as part of their yoga and stretching routines.

Brown said the inversion swing turns gravity around, allowing users to position their bodies in poses they wouldn't normally be able to sustain right side up. This helps them move all their bodies' joints in their maximum ranges of motion, which is one of the practices of yoga, he said.

A one-inch slack line stretched taught across the room was used for practicing one's balance with or without the help of handles hanging from the ceiling.

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Highland Lake Yoga closes; tradition continues