Owners of a yoga studio in Williams Lake will continue to teach but are closing their studio because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have had some struggles with the studio since the 2017 wildfires,” said Angie Delainey who co-owns Satya Yoga with Tricia McLelland. “We had to re-imagine all of our finances and went through an exercise of creating a new website and new memberships.”
The business was starting to build and was hopefully going to be OK, but then COVID hit and made them sit down and re-evaluate the future, which has resulted in the decision to close the studio, she added.
“As we shut down the brick and mortar aspect of our business we feel we will be better able to extend ourselves out into the community and provide the experience and many benefits of yoga in a broader aspect,” McLelland said.
Before they shut the studio doors permanently at the end of 2020, they will be offering classes from Sept. 1 to Dec. 17 three days a week to honour people who purchased passes.
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Closing the studio will also make way for them to pursue numerous ways of sharing what yoga has to offer, McLelland said.
“We can offer services to people in Williams Lake and surrounding communities, but also to people who are looking to move to Williams Lake to land and create a family here, as well as people who are passing through for tourism in the summertime, for biking or in the winter.”
McLelland’s background is in therapeutic yoga.
She trained out of Boston for two years, doing her practicum in therapeutic yoga and then worked at Nenqayni Wellness Centre for four years.
Delainey is a Cariboo Regional District area director and a trustee with School District 27.
Both have taught yoga at their daughters’ elementary schools.
Delainey said by letting go of the studio and positioning themselves to partner with community partners and local governments, yoga will be made more accessible.
“We aren’t going away, but we are shifting gears,” she added. “We want people to come and use their passes before we don’t have a location anymore.”
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