In The News

 

Jan. 8, 2010 08:43 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com

 

The plight of an Ahwatukee girl partially paralyzed during soccer practice six days before Christmas is starting to catch attention in Chandler.

 

A week after businesses and residents in Ahwatukee started rallying around 11-year-old Mackenzie Saunders and her family, Joyful Yoga Studio in Chandler announced it is donating its fees from its Sunday family yoga classes to their cause.

 

The Kyrene Akimel A-al Middle School sixth-grader is on what could be a long slow road to recovery and her family faces possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical expenses.

A member of the Ahwatukee Soccer Club's 98 Girls Sting Red, Mackenzie, a goalie, was injured either in the collision with another player or during the resulting fall.

A vertebra broke in her lower back, in turn bruising and cutting the blood supply to her lower spinal cord.

 

"It was an incredibly rare injury," said Christina Kwasnica, a medical director at Barrow Neurological Institute at St Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, the physician who has supervised Mackenzie's care.

 

On New Year's Day weekend, family friend David Kovacs said, a car wash last weekend and several other fundraisers raised $11,000 to help her family cope with untold thousands of dollars in medical bills.

A number of local businesses were part of that effort.

 

Joyful Yoga on Ray Road near and McClintock Avenue, will donate fees from its family yoga classes on Sundays throughout the month while a class instructor, Julia Pearl of Ahwatukee, also will donate her fees from those classes to Mackenzie's recovery fund.

 

"We are so proud to be part of the fabulous Ahwatukee area community, and even more proud of young athletes like Mackenzie," said Syd Hoffman, owner of Joyful Yoga Studio. "So many of us here are parents ourselves and her story is one that touches and inspires us. We hope that everyone in the community will help us support Mackenzie's family by enjoying a class and honoring Mackenzie's can-do attitude."

 

Family Yoga is offered every Sunday from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and is aimed at helping parents and their children "to bond and explore healthy behaviors together," said spokeswoman Debra Plunkett. No previous yoga experience is necessary.

 

Information: www.joyfulyogastudio.com or 480-726-6399.