254

Breathing new life into Knutsford Community Centre

es

Chair yoga, hosted by Ashton Smallman, is one of the newer activities to

help stretch parts of the body not used during a normal yoga class.

take place at the Knutsford Com- munity Centre. The chair is used as a prop during the exercise as a way to help steady a person, and can ilian Trainor photo

By Jillian Trainor

jillian@peicanada.com

Yoga night at the Knutsford Community Centre was at full socially distanced, capacity on Oct. 26.

Hosted by yoga instructor Ashton Smallman, women of all ages attended for an eve- ning of meditation and gentle exercise.

“I think it was just something that a lot of people are inter ested in, and a lot of young people’ said Fairley Yeo,a mem- ber of the Knutsford Women’s Institute (WI).“We're wanting to draw new people into our orga- nization and see the commu- nity (centre). It doesn’t do as much as we could with it,so we want it to be used”

The community centre does host a variety of events, from wedding receptions, various event showers, along with yard sales and bake sales.

The idea to do yoga came about after a conversation between fellow WI member Betty Sweet and one of her daughters, After a discussion, Ms Yeo and Ms Sweet's fellow WI members thought it would be a good activity to have at the community centre.

“It was lovely’ said Ms Sweet . “I'm really pleased that we're able to use the facility for this”

The first yoga session was

,

AVA soar

held on Oct. 19. While both were well attended and had the maximum accommodation number of 10 people, the plan was to only have two sessions in the fall/close up the community centre for winter, and start the sessions up again in spring.

The hope is activities like this will bring in more people, and make them aware of the com- munity centre, which first oper ated as the community's school.

The school was actually the second school building in the area. The first was built on land donated by William Silliker in 1869, but was deemed unfit to teach in by 1874.The new build- ing was erected between 1875 and 1879, and alterations were made to it in the early 1900s, turning it into a two room build- ing. It operated as a school until . 1974, during a time when schools across the province were being consolidated and | replaced by centralized schools. | From that period on, it became | the area’s community centre.

Another suggested activity mentioned was crafting.

“Some of the younger women were wanting to do knitting, and crocheting, things like that; said WI member Verna Small- man.“We would have tried it in the fall, or even in the spring, but not with COVID, we can’t. You have to be handy to people if you're going to instruct them?

Yoga instructor Ashton Smaliman shows how to stretch using the strap as a prop during a session of chair yoga at the Knutsford Community Centre on Oct. 26. This was the second and final yoga session of the season, as the centre closes up in the winter, but the hope is to have

mora sassinns ance snoring rails araund .