MIND &BODY
Camp Rainbow centers kids through yoga
In 2016 Stefania Maiale had a kidney transplant due to a genetic disease at age 36. The elementary school teacher had a 6-year-old son at the time as well as a three-year-old yoga studio.
Maiale, who lives in Montgomery County, recalled it was a challenging time in her life, but felt fortunate to have yoga available as a tool to help her manage the demands.
“I was able to take what I had already known — the selfreflection, the breathing exercises,” she Maiale said. “Taking a step back with the physical meant I had to take a step forward with the mental part and breath work.”
Yoga helped her manage the stress through self-reflection and an acceptance that she couldn’t change her situation.
“It was, ‘how am I perceiving my role in this situation and how can I do it in a way that’s less stressful?’” she said. “A lot of it was just working on perception.”
She was first attracted to the practice of yoga in her 20s when she was introduced to it by her cousin. She had been going to the gym regularly but was looking for a different form of exercise that could give her a greater level of flexibility. She grew to like the personalization in the process of incorporating this new practice into her life.
“I saw where I was and where I could be with practice, but it was not a competition,” she said. “It was your own growth and
you were in charge of it.”
Maiale, who is now 42, also learned to see how the practice of yoga could have a positive impact on her life beyond her time on the mat.
“It’s stressful being an adult and then being a parent and getting older,” she said. “It’s a lot to navigate when you don’t know what to do with it, between stress, work, family, growing and being an adult, paying your bills.”
Since she was already a teacher, she was drawn to getting her certification, so headed to The Berkshires in Massachusetts to complete it and eventually opened her own studio, Collegeville Yoga Bar, in 2013.
She decided to get two additional certifications centered on children’s yoga, to enable her to teach at an after-school club at her elementary school. It was also a way to address her adopted son’s emotional issues.
“My son had chemically dependent parents, so he has mood problems, attention problems and expressive language delay,” Maiale said. “
She felt yoga could offer him the necessary skills to cope.
“Sometimes even adults, but mostly children, it’s very hard to develop skills to calm down or regroup or evaluate,” she said. It’s helpful to do the different breathing exercises and poses — it’s very beneficial for that purpose.”
Given her son’s personal situation, Maiale learned about a camp, Camp Rainbow located in Schwenksville, that could offer him support.
“He has Medicaid for health reasons and it’s a summer camp for children on Medicaid,” she said. “That is how I had gotten to know about this camp.”
The camp’s mission is to provide a safe physical and emotional overnight camping experience to deserving children in Montgomery County. They aim to contribute to positive youth and adolescent development which, in turn, will help children become successful and productive adults.
Maiale’s son, Jacob, now age 11, began attending the camp and in 2018 she started volunteering her time there as a yoga instructor. She felt it could be helpful for the campers to enable them to better cope with the environment they live in or with any behavioral diagnoses they might have.
“In this demographic your home environment isn’t always the calmest scenario and sometimes it’s necessary to take yourself on a little retreat with yourself,” she said.
Yoga can teach someone, even children, how to do that.
“You can have that toolbox for yourself because life is hard and centering yourself is very calming,” she said. “Life is stressful for children too.”
For the past four years, Maiale has offered a one-hour class to elementary-aged children at least twice a week at the camp. Kim Murphy, the Camp’s Director said that by the second class the kids grow to love it.
“Yoga just adds to the whole purpose of why we do Camp Rainbow — to help kids,” Murphy said. “It’s really helping the children be able to look at themselves and afterward be able to say, ‘I do feel better after that and more relaxed after that.”
During their week-long stay, children get the opportunity to get exposed to many different things. Murphy said that a lot of the children don’t have access to things like yoga and going to a real camp.
“They do yoga, gardening, spend time in the creek, run in the field,” Murphy said. “They are having all of these firsttime experiences and I’m really grateful that yoga can be one of them.”
Yoga addresses the social and emotional learning aspect of the camp.
“You really want to be able to recognize how others are feeling and how you are feeling,” Murphy said. “It’s fun to see the chain reaction of how good yoga is for you — it’s awesome.”