DENVER — When reflecting on the past year, many find a reason to be thankful. Whether that's a moment, a person, or a place — this time of year centers around such gratitude, and in some cases, how we can give back.
That's where Colorado Gives Day comes into the picture. The goal is to provide a secure platform that facilitates donations to thousands of nonprofit organizations across the state.
Since 2010, Colorado Gives Day has raised more than half a billion dollars to support nonprofits with their unique missions. This year, Colorado Gives Day is next Tuesday.
Move Through Yoga is one of the nonprofit organizations participating in the statewide funding push.
"Move through yoga is a nonprofit that brings adaptive yoga to individuals with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities," said their founder and executive director, Stefanie Gross.
One way the organization serves such populations is inside of school classrooms. Gross explained she initially launched the nonprofit in Florida, but brought it to Colorado in 2018.
According to Gross, Move Through Yoga was first implemented in Jeffco Public Schools. This year, the program received a grant from Rocky Mountain Human Services, which Gross said supported their expansion into some Denver Public Schools.
"We rolled out to a total of 31 of their schools, but we are going to — hopefully, if all goes well — we'll be able to touch the schools that have not been serviced yet, so like, the elementary kiddos," said Gross. “We just were primarily in the middle schools and in the high schools and the charter schools in DSST.”
Before Move Through Yoga became a reality inside of the classroom, Gross taught educators how to practice adaptive yoga with their students.
"We have provided four direct service classes to each of the schools, professional development to the paraeducators, which was also very important, because paraeducators and support staff are what really enable the teachers and the students to thrive," Gross explained. “We really lifted up the importance of educating our paraprofessionals in their own co-regulation strategies, which, you know, oftentimes they feel stressed, and oftentimes, when they feel stressed or dysregulated, their students feel it and vice versa.”
Denver7 attended one of those sessions with paraprofessionals in August. One of the educators who took the course was Marshannon Bradley, a paraprofessional in the DSST Center program for multi-severe needs students.
“We've been in training for two days, so by the end, it's calm and relaxed and focused. And I can do this," Bradley said with a smile.
Before the training, Bradley was not familiar with the practice of yoga.
"I've been too busy doing mom things," she said, laughing. "You don't really have time for yoga.”
However, it was one of Bradley's children who led her to the Move Through Yoga training. Her daughter, Amaya, was born with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), which is a rare genetic disorder.
"She never walked, she never talked, but with the services that we were provided, she did talk with a use of an assistant device," Bradley said. "I do what I do for her. She is my why.”
Just a few months before speaking with Denver7, Bradley's daughter, Amaya, passed away.
"She would be very proud of her mom," Bradley said softly, reflecting on how her daughter would feel about the training. "I think so.”
Another educator who went through the program is Wendy Shepard, the multi-intensive-severe special education teacher at Merrill Middle School.
"I've been working with this population of students for over 40 years in different capacities," Shepard said.
Originally, Shepard was a bit nervous about the Move Through Yoga program.
"I was a deer in headlights when I started Move Through Yoga, because I didn't know anything about yoga," Shepard said. "I just wanted something else to put in my tool belt to help with regulation, co-regulation, and breathing and calming exercises.”
Shepard quickly became a believer in the exercises she learned, and has already seen them work.
"We had an emergency alert a couple weeks ago through Denver County, and when that happened, we were able to calm one of the students down by using breathing techniques that we learned through yoga," said Shepard.
In Shepard's classroom, her students want to engage with the practices the nonprofit organization spearheaded.
"I see some of my students coming and joining us in yoga class, which sometimes they don't join us for every activity that we do," Shepard explained. "They want to be involved. They want to participate.”
One of the students Shepard works with is 13-year-old Michaiah Gilbert, whose father saw the program in action during the nonprofit's annual advocacy event in November, called the "Yoga Wave." Denver7 was there as hundreds of people — students, parents, and educators — gathered inside of a gym to move, breathe, and share the space together.
“For Michaiah's dad to be able to sit and be still, or sit beside and with his daughter in movement, it's another way of interaction," Gross said. “Through that movement, they were able to connect on a deeper level.”
Michaiah's father Julian sat alongside his daughter and watched as Shepard helped her stretch and breathe.
“Just seeing her relaxed, you know, just seeing her happy, that's really good. I love that," Julian said smiling. "It's really good to see her enjoy this.”
Initially, Julian did not understand how Move Through Yoga would work with the needs of his daughter, who has cerebral palsy.
"I definitely had my questions. Like, you know, just with her special needs and how would that be accommodated," Julian explained. "I was curious. But, you know, seeing it, I'm like, really cool. We have to implement some of this at home.”
For Gross, the response from the Gilbert family is exactly why she does this work.
“There's a symbiotic relationship that happens when you move through yoga," Gross said. “There's nothing more that you want in this day and age than to have a unification, a unified feeling for those who may feel less than.”
Colorado Gives day is Dec. 9, and last year Coloradans raised $54.8 million for nonprofit organizations.
Donations can be given early to any of the thousands of nonprofit participating in Colorado Gives Day.
