ALTON – Students will be stretching and de-stressing in the first mini camp of the year offered during Riverbender Community Center’s after school program.

Teachers from River Bend Yoga will lead a one-week yoga camp for students in grades 3-8 at the Center the week of September 16-20, from 4:00-5:30 pm. The mini camp is limited to 25 students. Cost for the mini camp is $40 per student. Students can register online at www.riverbendercommunitycenter.org/minicamps. Bus transportation is available from Alton Middle School, St. Mary’s Middle School and East, West and North Elementary Schools. Parents should contact the school prior to the camp to arrange bus transportation for the week of the camp.

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“Our children live in a hurry-up world of busy parents, school pressures, incessant lessons, video games, and competitive sports,” said Vicky Delaney, owner and teacher at River Bend Yoga. “We usually don’t think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. The bustling pace of our children’s lives can have a profound effect on their innate joy—and usually not for the better.”

Delaney said yoga can help counter these pressures. When children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can navigate life’s challenges with a little more ease, she said.

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“Yoga at an early age encourages self-esteem and body awareness with a physical activity that’s NON-competitive,” Delaney said. “Fostering cooperation and compassion—instead of opposition—is a great gift to give our children.”

Delaney said children derive enormous benefits from yoga. Physically, it enhances their flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness. In addition, their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation improves.

“Doing yoga, children exercise, play, connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the natural world that surrounds them,” she said. “Yoga brings that marvelous inner light that all children have to the surface. When children imitate the movements and sounds of nature, they have a chance to get inside another being and imagine taking on its qualities. The physical movements introduce kids to yoga’s true meaning: union, expression, and honor for oneself and one’s part in the delicate web of life.”

RBCC Executive Director Jeff Allsman said the yoga mini camp is the first of several that will be offered through the Inquiring Minds Mini Camp program this school year at the Center. He said camps are already scheduled at least monthly with more camps likely to be added to the calendar.

For more information and to view the full list of mini camps visit www.riverbendercommunitycenter.org/minicamps.

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