Dreams do come true……..
Our Thanksgiving Day Sampler started as a small class that I decided to teach on Thanksgiving morning, the first year I opened the studio in Auburn Washington. From my days of teaching at the gym, I remembered how much fun it was to have class the morning of Thanksgiving, teaching alongside other teachers and everyone getting a good workout in before the big meal! I came up with the idea of making it a fundraiser for the Food Bank and everyone was on board. The first year I offered it we had about 15 people attend and raised under $100. Thru the years, this idea grew, and became something beyond my first inspiration. And here we are now….at year 10!
Around my 4th year of doing this, my dear friend and colleague Clarissa Ruston, who works at the Auburn Parks & Recreation Dept., offered to help find us a larger space to teach our Sampler in, and hopefully reach a larger audience with our mission. We moved into the Truitt Building for a few years and our classes expanded.
Clarissa invited me each year to the annual Food Bank Breakfast, (which if you haven’t attended…you need to!) It is a testimony to the wonderful work that Debbie Christian and her staff do to help people in need in our community. You hear directly from the people whose lives have been changed with the help of the Auburn Food Bank. One year I sat in the audience listening to the speakers and felt so moved and inspired by their stories. I looked up and realized I was sitting in a gymnasium. I leaned over to Clarissa and said….”What if we could get this space to use for our class? Imagine how many more people we could have attend if we had a gymnasium this size to teach in?” In that moment it was as if I saw a window open and clearly envisioned us being in a gym this size, with a large audience of students attending our annual event. It was inspiring!
Well….it was only a few years later, that vision I had on the morning of our Food Bank Breakfast was manifest into reality! In the past 5 years we have had the honor of being able to host our classes in the Auburn Washington Community Center Gym. And a couple of years ago, we had over 40 people attend and raised $1200 in donations and over 100lbs of food to donate! WOW!!
Our amazing teachers at Corestar have joined in the cause and willingly donate not only their time to teach on the morning of Thanksgiving , some driving long distances to participate….but they spend the months prior gearing up our promotion to get the word out to our community. We teach a 30 minute blend of the classes they offer at the studio; Pilates, Yoga, Barre, and some fun Cardio Fitness. I am grateful to each of them and to my friend and cohort in this mission, Clarissa, for helping me make this dream a reality.
I am here to say, that dreams DO come true. It only takes dedication, a little hard work, and lots of help from your friends.
If you would like to join us tomorrow morning, you can drop in or register here to save a spot for you and your friends!
From all of us at Corestar to all of you: Happy Thanksgiving and a wish for the coming holiday season to be filled with blessings for each of you!
With love and gratitude,
Ruth and the Corestar Staff
Lisa, Erin, Ruth, Paige & Angie
