The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation Community Fund will host the 2014 second annual Newtown Yoga Festival on Saturday, August 23. The event will run from 9 am to 4 pm, and will again be presented at NYA Sports & Fitness Center.

The festival has been designed to promote a positive well-being, health and community in an effort to help the people of Newtown move forward. Last year’s yoga festival, which featured world-renowned yoga teachers Seane Corn and Beryl Bender Birch, was enormously successful, and drew hundreds of residents from the Newtown community. There will be adult yoga classes led by renowned yoga instructors, local health and wellness vendors, fresh culinary delights, live music and kids’ activities featuring children’s yoga with Newtown resident Karen Pierce.

The Sandy Hook Promise Foundation Community Fund is dedicated to finding holistic ways of supporting those affected by the tragic mass shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six educators on December 14, 2012.

Yoga, by promoting movement and mindfulness, has been proven effective in reducing stress and depression and is a valuable mechanism for coping with physical and emotional trauma.

Ray Crist is a hatha yoga teacher certified through Yoga Alliance. Initiated as a healer and teacher by the Quero Indians in the Andes of Peru, Mr Crist holds degrees in Chinese medical herbology and Thai Yoga (Bo Ran northern style). He is certified in Reiki, and his first practices were the martial arts of tai chi and kung-fu (wu-shu).

Mr Crist is based in the Berkshires and travels the world leading workshops.

In his workshop for the Newtown community, Mr Crist will explore a yoga practice through the shamanic view of moving energy, and savasana as a bubbling well of healing energy. Attendees will explore a Vinyasa Flow along with shamanic principals. Through shamanic eyes participants will see how yoga practice assists the somatic release of stagnated energies.

Tiffany Maloney began practicing yoga 20 years ago to compliment her burgeoning professional dance career.

The owner of LoveYoga in Beaumont, Texas, and director of teacher training, Ms Maloney has developed a 200-hour curriculum of Vinyasa Flow yoga that emphasizes sound alignment and organic sequencing while weaving in elements of traditional yogic philosophy and mystic teachings.

She has also developed a workshop series, Elemental Asana, based on the Cardinal Directions on how one can weave ritual practice, yoga practice and one’s unique governing element together, and is currently developing a book based on this series of workshops.

In addition to her time on the mat, also works as an energy healer, a spirit medium and shamanic practitioner.

Jennifer Reis, one of the nation’s foremost teachers of yoga nidra, has a gift for creating sacred space to journey into realms of renewal. Yogic sleep is the antidote for modern life and Ms Reis will effortlessly lead participants in her workshop of their scattered and frenetic lives to a place of healing and peace. Yoga Fest participants will also experience the Sound Healing Circle to soothe their way into a yoga nidra experience.

NYA Sports & Fitness Center is within Fairfield Hills, at 4 Primrose Street.

Suggested donation is $25 for adults; participants ages 16 and under are free.

Additional details will be announced closer to the event, but registration is already open and this year it is available online. Visit NewtownYogaFestival.com for registration and other festival details. For additional information, contact Suzy DeYoung at suzy.deyoung@sandyhookpromise.org.

The mission of Sandy Hook Promise Foundation Community Fund is carried out through a restricted and need based fund. No administrative/overhead expenses of any kind are taken against donations. One hundred percent of funds are passed along to the community in the form of financial assistance, in-kind and other services such as community programs and events.

The goal of the community fund is to develop and provide supportive programs and resources that will best meet the recovery needs of the Newtown community. Another goal is to provide immediate and long-term financial, in- kind, and other aid, on request, to those in the community impacted by the tragedy.

The Community Fund also aims to identify and support other nonprofit organizations that can provide best in class services, treatment and support.