philanthropy

The full definition includes qualities like: loving kindness, friendship, goodwill, compassion for all things, and non-violence. It embodies the idea of pure compassion, without expectations or judgment.

Mats for Metta is a program created by Sheila Chutskoff, the founder of oranj fitness, in an effort to make yoga more accessible to her community – in particular, students. Many studies have shown that students exposed to yoga show major improvements in their self-regulatory skills such as resilience, anger management, emotional expression and mindfulness. Sheila and her oranj tribe have taught yoga to many students and charity groups over the years, and they’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from not only the students, but also their teachers and support staff. The requests for more private yoga sessions geared towards children and yoga for healing started to evolve. With this in mind, Sheila was inspired to create a way to provide more yoga to her local community, and Mats for Metta was founded.

As of January 2014, for every one-year unlimited membership purchased from oranj fitness, a yoga mat is donated to a local school or charity. Oranj also hosts an annual Largest Outdoor Yoga class in each community – with all proceeds from these classes going toward the purchase of mats and props, as well as wages for yoga instructors to teach classes at schools and charitable organizations. Since inception we have proudly donated over $64,000 worth of yoga mats and props into our local communities.

If you are interested in learning more about this program or would like to recommend a school or charity as a potential recipient for our donation please email [email protected]