By Maddy Vitale
What better way to spend a Labor Day morning than to find your Zen in a yoga class on a Sea Isle City beach, while benefiting a worthy cause?
At 7:30 a.m., Sept. 3, Teri O’Connor, who owns NJ Beach Yoga, will host the sixth annual “Pose for PEACE” fundraiser at the JFK beach.
Participants will gather in the shape of a peace sign and share a beach yoga class as O’Connor leads the way. For a second year in a row, donations will go to the National Epilepsy Foundation.
“Last year we raised $1,030 for this incredible cause. That was really good, but we are really hoping to do even better this year,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor chose to donate to the National Epilepsy Foundation because her niece suffers from the disease.
“It is a disease you don’t hear a lot about,” she said. “People came last year to the fundraiser because it is dedicated to epilepsy awareness. I have had some nice feedback about the class from people who came who have epilepsy in their families.”
O’Connor said more than anything, she wants people to learn about the disease.
“People have a picture in their head of what epilepsy might look like,” she noted. “Raising awareness is important because it could help people understand what it is and what to do if they see someone having a seizure.”
O’Connor has been under contract with Sea Isle City to offer yoga year-round inside the Community Lodge at the Welcome Center, at JFK Boulevard beach for Beach Yoga classes and Full Moon Yoga classes given at 29th Street and the beach.
She said because of her wonderful relationship with the city, she is able to host a successful fundraiser.
“I’ve been teaching Beach Yoga for 11 years for Sea Isle,” O’Connor said. “It is the best city to work for.”
“Pose for PEACE” started in 2013 to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. O’Connor, who grew up in Lavallette in Ocean County, where there was widespread destruction from the hurricane, said there was a lot of fundraising going on at that time and she wanted to do her part.
“I thought it would be great to do a Labor Day fundraiser. I saw people online sitting in the shape of a peace sign and I asked the city if we could do something like that with yoga for the fundraiser,” she explained. “They were like, ‘That would be great.’”
Every year the fundraiser has grown. Last year 150 people attended the class. The only year that there was a smaller turnout was in 2016 when the weather was bad. “We still had 30 people,” O’Connor noted.
O’Connor and her husband, Jim, moved to Sea Isle a few years ago when they became empty-nesters. They raised their daughters, Kacey, 28, and Kelly, 23, and son, Jimmy, 25, in Marmora.
Formerly a dental hygienist, O’Connor, 55, has been teaching yoga for the last 14 years and is also a personal trainer.
“In my 20s and 30s, I had trouble focusing and I hated to sit still. Once I found yoga, things started to change. It helps me appreciate how important it is to slow down,” she said.
Her business, NJ Beach Yoga is mobile. She has a van and goes to various venues to teach yoga.
“I think that there are a lot of different flavors of yoga out there,” she said. “You need to try out different features and styles. I want my yoga to be accessible, no matter what level you are at. My main goal is for you to like yourself better when you leave a class. It is more about how you feel, than how you look.”
If you never tried yoga, she said, “Pose for PEACE” would be a great place to start.
For more information visit www.njbeachyoga.com or call or text Teri at 609-602-3398 or email her at terioconnor@comcast.net.
