Hello! My name is Toni Spruell, pronouns she/her. While thriving during breast cancer for much of 2016, I would gaze at an old, unused garage in my backyard. It felt like there was some kind of healing reverberating from that space. It would be years, but my family and I completed construction on that building we nicknamed 'The Yoga Shack' in 2019. My dream was to create a space that my family could enjoy but also felt inclusive and welcoming to new ideas, classes, and other community offerings while remaining Pay-It-Forward donation-based. I'm a Colorado certified classroom and PE teacher and I’ve been leading kids yoga in schools, on farms, and other public spaces in Fort Collins since 2013. I deeply believe in learning from people around me, living a life filled with joy and gratitude, while also questioning societal norms that seem to be widely accepted. My privilege has allowed me to miss and perpetuate the cultural appropriation, racism, and fatphobia that has been happening in many western yoga spaces for far too long. I am failing forward everyday. A yoga practice IS a practice in social justice. These feelings inform and guide my practice and teaching which is focused on honoring the roots of yoga while providing a space for kids and teens to better connect to themselves and their surroundings.

 

The Yoga Shack offers small group, registration-required, kids day camps. All camps are listed on our Camps/Events page. We have no drop-in or special classes at this time. If our donation choices don't fit your budget, send us an email. We turn no young person away regardless of ability to pay if there is space in the camp!!  Kids need not have any yoga experience to attend- in fact, some kids ask why we aren't doing much yoga!! We honor all eight limbs of yoga and asanas (poses) are just ONE of those limbs! Young people also don't need to look or act in a certain way. They can show up in any comfy clothes and with whatever big or small emotion they are feeling at the time. Their full and authentic self is welcome as the world needs authenticity now more than ever. We practice loads of nervous system regulation and that's going to look different everyday!

 

The pandemic hit us hard and life changes meant we had to sell our beloved first studio space. We now rent spaces around town for our camps and work in schools for most after school camps. Cash donations can be accepted at the classes/camps. You can also use the PayPal link at the top of this website.

 

Questions? Concerns? Just ask!