Wyatt Samuelson
“For most people, yoga is a luxury, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Erica Hawkes, a lawyer turned yoga teacher and owner of Key West Yoga Sanctuary, 612 Fleming St. in Key West.
On June 20, Key West Yoga Sanctuary held a Summer Solstice in the Garden event to raise funds for Yoga Gives Back. Yoga Gives Back is an international organization that helps poor girls and women in India, offering a variety of services from scholarships and microloans for higher education to helping girls continue their primary education and sponsoring the manufacture of women’s products. The event offered locals a chance to practice yoga, enjoy sound bath therapy with live music, and sip mocktails. (Sound baths use resonating music to create an immersive sound that fills the room and the body, aiming to relax people.) A silent auction, part of the event, encouraged a donation of $33, although donations were completely voluntary. The event raised more than $3,000.
Hawks has been running Yoga Sanctuary in Key West since 2020 and has always kept in mind the mantra of “putting people first.” She has practiced yoga for over 25 years, including while working as an attorney, before deciding to follow her true passion and leave her law practice to teach yoga full time. During her tenure in Key West, Hawks has participated in many events that benefit the local community and impoverished areas of the world.
“Last summer, through Yoga Gives Back community classes and events, we sent 10 women to college in India, helping them avoid arranged marriages and literally changing the trajectory of their lives,” Hawkes says. “It may only have been $30 for the participants, but it’s incredible how much it meant to the women in India.”
Through its Community Yoga program, Yoga Sanctuary offers free, occasional yoga classes throughout the week to Key West residents and visitors. Participants are encouraged to donate at these classes, and 100% of funds raised throughout the year go directly to Yoga Gives Back and other charities. Hawks describes her yoga practice as the Sanskrit word “Sevā,” or “service,” which is central to Hawks’ and Yoga Sanctuary’s mission. Each quarter, Hawks rotates through Yoga Sanctuary-sponsored organizations and charities. During the summer, proceeds from events such as Summer Solstice in the Garden and the Community Yoga program go directly to Yoga Gives Back. At other times of the year, proceeds support local causes such as Reef Relief, Bravo Theater, and the Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition.
“Yoga for me has been a life-changing experience,” Hawkes says. “I’ve benefited so much from it that I love sharing my practice with others. I grew up in a family that valued service, and now that I have that platform, I feel it’s important to give back to the local community that supports me.”
For more information, visit keywestyogasanctuary.com.
