Free outdoor yoga a way to bring community together and make most of short summer weather

The Cumberland Oxford Community League is offering free yoga classes for Edmontonians. CTV News Edmonton's Sasha Pietramala has the details.

A community league in Edmonton is making use of the recent hot weather to connect people with their neighbours through outdoor yoga.

The Cumberland Oxford Community League (COCL) hosts summer yoga classes on Thursday evenings in the summer. COCL president Donna Emsley said it is a great way to bring people together.

“Summer is always shorter than what we’d like it to be and we have such great green spaces, so it’s nice to give an opportunity for people to get out, exercise and enjoy those spaces,” she said before the Thursday session at Hudson Park.

Emsley said the summer yoga classes have been going on for six years in the community, with some pauses due to the COVID-19 restrictions. She said the community response has been great and it has grown over the past few years.

“Every class, you see an extra few people,” she said, adding they mainly promote the event on social media but are also seeing numbers grow with people passing by the park and wanting to join in.

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Yoga instructor Savannah Stuermer said the turnout for this year, in particular, has been “awesome” with around 20 or more people at each class.

She started yoga herself as part of her own mental health journey, and after seeing its benefits first-hand, wanted to share it with others.

“Taking time for yourself and learning that you can slow down and do what you need to take care of yourself and your well-being,” Stuermer said, explaining how yoga helps ground you.

She teaches outdoor yoga for the community league and said the classes are accessible for anyone, even those who have never practiced it before.

The COCL said they put on several events to bring the community together, including a boot camp on Wednesday mornings at Cumberland Park in the summer, a movie night in September and a “haunted forest” in October during Halloween.

While the classes are free for anyone to join, Emsley encourages people to support their neighbourhood by purchasing a community league membership.

“We’re a small group of volunteers, so we’re always looking for more people to bring their ideas for the neighbourhood and join us in putting on different events and activities.”

The outdoor yoga sessions run 7 p.m. to 8 p.m on Thursdays until the end of August. More information about upcoming events can be found on the COCL website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Sasha Pietramala and Dave Mitchell