Rochester

Om Squad offers free yoga classes to shelters, support centers

By Mary Beth Almond
C & G Staff Writer

ROCHESTER — UpDog Yoga owner Duane Utech has literally turned one of his dreams into reality.

“About a year ago, I dreamt I was on the David Letterman show with my best friend from New York, and Dave Letterman was talking about this thing called the Om Squad and that we were doing yoga for free for people who needed it,” he said.

When Utech woke up the next morning, the Om Squad was officially born.

A year later, Om Squad’s certified yoga instructors are conducting traditional yoga and meditation classes, free of charge, to schools, shelters and support centers throughout southeast Michigan.

Their mission is simple, according to Utech. It’s to take the practice directly to organizations and groups that might not otherwise have the means or opportunity to discover the healing benefits of yoga and meditation.

Utech knows personally the effect that practicing yoga can have on someone’s life.

The self-described formerly “hard-partying boy” turned to yoga back in 1999 when he began his journey to sobriety.

“I’ve been sober, good Lord willing, ever since. Yoga really was the thing that helped me get through that. It helped me be very comfortable in my sobriety,” he said.

Utech hopes the Om Squad will have a similar effect on others in need.

The Om Squad began teaching classes at the Baldwin Center in Pontiac — which feeds, clothes, and educates the men, women and children in need in Pontiac — and has since expanded to the Rochester Area Neighborhood House, which provides food, clothing, financial assistance, counseling services, transportation and referrals for people in crisis.

Sharon Sutton, operations and office manager for the Neighborhood House, said the classes are having an impact.

“It gives them the opportunity to use yoga to help them deal with their stress and anxiety in the situations they find themselves in. Those who are participating are finding some lifelong skills that they’ll be able to use not only in the current crisis they are experiencing, but something they can take with them going forward,” she said.

Yoga is the best way Utech knows of to truly relax, calm the mind and get in touch with the body, just as it is.

“I think that’s really the power of yoga. It teaches you how to just be content sitting there with yourself watching your breath come in and out. By slowing the breath and slowing the mind, you begin to relax, and then you start to heal,” he said. “It’s a way for people to, kind of, touch what’s inside them and start finding out what’s broken and what’s not broken, and work from there.”

In the future, Utech hopes the Om Squad can conduct classes 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for every organization and group that truly needs it.

Those interested in helping can donate gently used yoga mats or large bags on wheels for the group’s Yoga 2 Go kits at UpDog Yoga, 210 W. University, Suite 7.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Mary Beth Almond at malmond@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1060.