Yoga with Kerry has reached new heights this year as small business owner Kerry Turner sits tight in the Top 10 semi-finals for the Small Business BC Best in Community Impact Award.
Yoga with Kerry focuses on providing a safe, accessible and friendly learning environment, where people can practice and experience yoga and yoga therapy in a group or in a private therapeutic setting.
“There are many small businesses that were up for the award, to be in the Top 10 is an honour and a true testament to the Greater Trail community that voted for me to help get Yoga with Kerry into the Top 10,” said Turner.
The first part of the competition involved the use of social media to gather support from the community. Now Turner is tasked with an extended written application, which includes peer reference letters and an outline of her business practices.
The Top 5 will be announced Jan. 31, which will follow with a final 10 minute in-person business pitch to a panel of judges, who will pick the winner.
The winner of the Best Community Impact Award will receive $1,500 cash, will be offered an all-access pass to Small Business BC education and experts for one year and will receive business mentorship from the award sponsor. For Turner, the journey has been rewarding on its own.
“I believe the entire Small Business BC selection process is a wonderful learning opportunity for me to grow and develop my business,” she said.
Turner first started practicing yoga as a way to stay balanced while she was training and competing in big mountain skiing.
She was always attracted to the physical benefit of yoga but found there was more to it when an unfortunate situation knocked her into healing mode in 2004.
“After a serious car accident I wasn't able to do my physical yoga practice and instead started to learn a more therapeutic, meditative style that really helped me understand the mental and physical healing benefits of a regular yoga practice,” she recalled.
Yoga with Kerry started in May 2007 with help from Community Futures, where Turner acquired key business skills to help grow and develop her own path.
The Warfield resident began with by-donation yoga (proceeds to the SPCA) in the park, where she always had her black Labradors at her side basking in the sun. She still teaches in the park during the summer but moves indoors from September to June upstairs from Shoppers Drug Mart in Trail at the KP Hall. Turner also offers private lessons, corporate yoga, workshops and retreats.
As a 500-hour certified yoga therapist, Turner is trained in a variety of styles including, yoga therapy, gentle yoga, restorative yoga, yoga nidra, flow/vinyasa yoga, alignment-based yoga, pre/post natal yoga and meditation.
Turner now specializes in both yoga for stress management and yoga for chronic pain management and is currently studying for her 1,000-hour professional yoga therapy training with Integrative Yoga Therapy.
To find out more about Yoga with Kerry visit, www.kerryyoga.com