Los Angeles, CA  - August 2008 – Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA chapters and other community based organizations throughout the country are hosting free yoga classes for kids in honor of Yoga Month 09.2008, a national awareness campaign to inspire a healthy and informed lifestyle.

September has been declared National Yoga Month by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and is listed on Healthfinder.gov.
When Johannes Fisslinger founded the Yoga Health Foundation, a nonprofit 501 c (3) organization, he established with it the mission to deliver yoga to the masses in an effort to promote preventative health care.  Yoga Month 09.2008 was authored as a means to honor this mission.

Yoga Month is a national awareness campaign to inspire a healthy and informed lifestyle.  In June, 2008, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion acknowledged the work of the Yoga Health Foundation and declared September National Yoga Month.   Yoga Month is included among the select group of observances listed on Healthfinder.gov.

In celebration of Yoga Month 09.2008, a 10-City Yoga Health Festival Tour will take place across the US and Canada.  The tour will convene August 24-25 on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver and will conclude in Vancouver on October 4.  Other festival cities include Miami, New York, Chicago, Austin, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Boston.  The tour will feature nationally acclaimed yoga masters, respected health practitioners, green vendors, and conscious-minded musicians Justin Nozuka and Lili Haydn.  Russell Simmons, Mariel Hemingway, Sheila E, and other celebrated yogis have embraced Yoga Month and will participate in the 10-City Yoga Health Festival Tour.

In addition to the festival tour, Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA chapters, and other community based organizations throughout the country will take part in Yoga Month by hosting free yoga classes for underserved youth.  These classes will be led by Yoga Month Ambassadors and will focus on the importance of the national awareness campaign, the basics of yoga, nutrition, and simple ways to live a healthy and informed lifestyle at home and at school.  Many Yoga Month yoga classes have already been scheduled for implementation in August and September.  Additional community organizations interested in hosting free Yoga Month classes should contact Vera Alexander at 818-762-4767.

For more information on the awareness campaign and the festival tour, please visit www.yogamonth.org.