Area yoga teachers will be offering a special class to benefit the visually impaired.

Local teachers Janine Bennett, Andrea Jennings, Nicole Tweedie, Sue Whitmarsh and Joan Wolf will be joining Michelle Massey-Barnes in her studio as part of Yoga for Sight from 6-7:30 p.m., Friday, June 20 at the Chelsea Clocktower. The event will help the Seva Foundation’s work to help people see again.

The Seva Foundation was founded in Chelsea 35 years and is now based in California. The foundation has helped 3.5 million to see again.

Seva found its first home in Chelsea when in 1978, after working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to end smallpox in India, native Michiganders, Dr. Larry Brilliant (currently President, Skoll Global Threats Fund) and his wife Girija Brilliant, a public health specialist, published an article entitled “Death of a Killer Disease”. It was a personal account of their decade in Asia, first as youthful travelers, then as spiritual seekers, and eventually as part of WHO’s successful smallpox eradication team.

They concluded the article with an appeal to readers to find the compassion and understanding to support international health programs to benefit those struggling with poverty. Readers were moved and soon $20,000 in donations showed up in their mailbox, with the first $5,000 coming from not-yet-famous computer inventor Steve Jobs.

Inspired by the supportive response, the Brilliants invited an eclectic group that included WHO’s Dr. Nicole Grasset, spiritual teacher Ram Dass, and activist Wavy Gravy among others to a meeting in Chelsea. From this humble beginning, a model international organization was formed. In just the past year, Seva’s Sight Program provided 1million people with eye-care services worldwide. For more information on Seva please visithttp://www.seva.org

Anyone may participate regardless of their yoga experience. Former employees and volunteers from Seva Foundation will be on hand at the Yoga for Sight event to welcome and thank participants for their support.

SOURCE: Chelsea Standard