The Pitch: Why Donate
Do you want to attend rooftop yoga classes in a beautiful space surrounded by a gorgeous garden and led by highly-trained teachers without paying an arm and a leg for a fancy retreat or a trip out of town?
OR
Do you want to host your own events on a secluded rooftop surrounded by a lush, green garden?
OR
Do you enjoy supporting local entrepreneurs in their efforts to bring one-of-a-kind businesses, spaces, and experiences to DC?
If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then this is the fundraiser for you!
East Side Yoga opened this February in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and is already making waves as one of the most beautiful, retreat-like spaces in town. Now that the interior space is up and running, we've set our sights on upgrading our outdoor space to create DC's first rooftop yoga studio! Once we've completed the rooftop, not only will we offer regular rooftop classes and special events (like our Yoga Happy Hours!), we will also make the space available for event rentals.
Help us create this one-of-a-kind space so that we can bring DC yogis the ultimate yoga experience, and offer all Washingtonians a gorgeous and unique alternative to the usual bar & restaurant scenes for their socializing and event planning needs!
The Details: What We're Trying To Do
As you can see from the photos, we have already started creating our rooftop oasis. But we don't have enough space to host classes (yet), and we can't let our clients walk among our garden and truly enjoy it. Read on to find out why.
The roof membrane is still exposed on the majority of the roof deck (that's the silver part you see in the photos) and we can't let our clients walk on it. By covering the membrane with special rubber pavers designed to allow proper drainage, we will be able to allow our clients to explore the entire rooftop and really enjoy the garden. And more importantly, the rubber surface will be perfect for outdoor yoga sessions!
In addition to adding the rubber floor to the roof, there are some important upgrades we need to make to the space. We will install a security gate at the top of the stairs to keep our rooftop safe from uninvited visitors; the design of the gate will match the sunburst pattern of our existing window security bars. We will also install a security camera system.
The lighting outdoors needs some serious upgrading as well, and our plan includes bistro-style globe string lights, mason jar lanterns, and solar-powered fairy lights overhead and among the plants to help maintain the serene, retreat-like ambience that we have already created in our interior studio. The rooftop gets a LOT of sun during the day, so we will install canvas
sun sails to shade areas of the space while still allowing the plants to
get much-needed sun. And we will commission more custom-built planters to complete the garden, and purchase tables & seating for use during events.
What We Need From You
To cover the entire cost of the rooftop makeover, we need about $30,000. This would cover the material and labor costs of all of the items listed above.
The Perks
1. Access to one of our very first rooftop yoga classes, which will be exclusive to donors only.
2. As many rooftop classes as you feel like purchasing, including unlimited monthly options.
3. If you donate at a high enough level, you can also earn a spot on our Gratitude Wall: a special, permanent installation in the studio lobby that contains the names of all of the people who helped make East Side Yoga a reality, including our most generous donors.
A native of Austin, TX, our founder Alia J. Khan is a recovering attorney-turned-entrepreneur. She began practicing yoga when she began practicing law, because she knew she needed a way to balance out the stress of her new career, and obtained her 200-hour teaching certification from Tranquil Space in 2012. After nearly 5 years of working as an associate at an AmLaw 500 firm here in DC, Alia knew that the legal world was not the place for her. She embarked on a long and winding journey to find her dream career, making stops in the worlds of food writing and real estate along the way. Through her professional adventures, teaching yoga has always been a passion that fulfilled a very important part of her. But she knew that teaching yoga full-time would never fully satisfy all of her professional ambitions, so her search continued.
Alia had always dreamed of owning her own business, though she used to think that she wanted to open a restaurant. Two years of writing about the restaurant industry rid her of that notion completely, but her entreprenuerial spirit still burned strong. Her undergraduate degree was in business, and she longed to return to her business roots after her foray into the law. While using her real estate knowledge to help her partner search for office space for his business, she stumbled across a listing for a former dance studio just five blocks away from her home.
The moment she set foot in the space, Alia knew that she had to open a yoga studio there. After years of living on the Hill and crossing town to get her yoga fix, she was convinced that her neighborhood had a real need for the type of studio that she could open and the community she would build around it. And so, East Side Yoga was born!
Alia designed the East Side Yoga space and worked with local contractor GL Barnhart Construction to make it a reality. Using locally-sourced, salvaged materials, the GLBC team custom-built furniture, fixtures, and finishes that have truly made our space unlike any other in DC. Alia calls it her Farmhouse-Spa-Chic style, and has invested a lot of energy into making our clients feel like they have truly escaped from their everyday lives. A visit to East Side Yoga is a mini-retreat that you can treat yourself to every day!
No Money? No Problem. Help Us Spread the Word!
We understand that some of you just can't contribute right now, and that's OK! You can still help us out by simply spreading the word about our studio and our campaign. Use the Indiegogo sharing tools or simply copy the link to this page and share with any email lists, groups, and/or social media platforms that you may be on.
Thank you for supporting East Side Yoga!
