Lori Pierce - IAYT 2021 SEVA Award Finalist
Our own Lori Pierce, co-teacher of the Yoga for the Special Child CE on Scleroderma and Arthritis, is an International Association of Yoga Therapists 2021 SEVA award finalist.
Lori has been living with scleroderma since 2002 and reaches fellow scleroderma warriors who think they can't do yoga. As one participant said after Lori's presentation "You took away all my excuses."
Pre-COVID, Lori presented at Scleroderma Foundation conferences and chapter and support group meetings across the US, as well as being a co-teacher of the IAYT Approved PD Yoga for the Special Child Continuing Education on Scleroderma and Arthritis. With the travel restrictions COVID imposed on high-risk immune compromised individuals, Lori looked for a way to continue to serve her scleroderma community and chose a free weekly guided relaxation to reduce stress, a trigger for scleroderma symptom flares. As many in the scleroderma community are already isolated, often without good internet, she chose a zoom presentation with phone-in, no internet or cellphone needed.
The weekly “Wednesday Wind-down” program began at 6:30pm EDT in June 2020. In July, another weekly broadcast was added at 6:30pm India Standard time, which is translated to Hindi on the third Wednesday of the month. In September the podcast channel started, downloads reached 1,000 on December 31, 2020 and are now at 3,400 downloads from 66 countries. Lori’s podcasts also appear on the Yoga for Scleroderma YouTube channel. Lori covers all of the costs of the Zoom broadcasts and the Podcast channel as her service to her Scleroderma Community.
Lori will be recognized in the IAYT magazine Yoga Therapy Today and received a cash award toward her podcast costs and yoga mats for her Scleroderma Support Group Yoga Class.
~ Kathy
