The Request

In late 2002 Kathy received a phone call from Laura Lewis, who at the that time was the National Programs and Services Manager for The Scleroderma Foundation, based in Massachusetts. 

Laura was planning programs for the Foundation’s National Conference to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada in June of 2002. As a personal yoga practitioner, Laura hoped to introduce yoga as a complementary therapy to those with Scleroderma, and was searching for a yoga teacher to present such a therapy. 

Her web search for "yoga in Las Vegas, Nevada" led her to The Yoga Center (Kathy's studio in Reno, NV) web page. There she found a listing for The Yoga Partnership: Integrating Physical Therapy//Occupational Therapy and Yoga -a continuing education class for therapists taught by Marilyn McDonald, PT, and Kathy, with a class listing for Las Vegas. 

Kathy's certification as a practitioner of Yoga for the Special Child, her coordination with therapists to integrate yoga into therapy programs, and her work developing personalized yoga programs for those with special needs convinced Laura to invite her to present at the Las Vegas conference, even though she was located in Reno, hundreds of miles away. 

Kathy's first reason for this project was because it was presented to her, a spiritual opportunity. The second reason is because yoga offers so much to those with Scleroderma. A yoga practice will always provide benefit, but Kathy was immediately struck by the many physical, emotional and spiritual symptoms of Scleroderma that are so amenable to relief through the practice of yoga.

Kathy offered to teach for free. Laura offered to pay Kathy's travel expenses. 

Kathy presented the first Yoga for Scleroderma at the 2002 Scleroderma National Conference.