Stephanie Thompson lost everything in a Centretown fire on Gilmour Street in January. Luckily for her, her bosses and co-workers at Pure Yoga Ottawa were determined to help.
On just its second day after opening, Pure Yoga's new studio at Bank and Gilmour streets held a special yoga class for her benefit, with those attending making donations and participating in a raffle, all to help out a fellow “yogi” who was down on her luck.
Thompson, a 25-year-old Ottawa native, was at her mother’s house for dinner on the evening of Jan. 12, when she got the phone call from her roommate, who had been home at the time, telling her the bad news. After a short conversation, Thompson’s roommate grabbed her roommate’s dog and their laptops and got out. Thompson rushed to the scene, but there was little she could do.
“At that point, our street was completely bombarded by fire trucks, and cops, and people,” says Thompson. “So it was pretty surreal.”
After waiting around outside in disbelief for about an hour, she was told that she should leave. She followed the news that night and soon learned that the fire had spread to her unit. The fire had started at 546 Gilmour St., and soon spread to 544 and 540 Gilmour St. More than a dozen people were left homeless. Thompson’s clothing, furniture and personal photos were all lost in the blaze. But her colleagues at Pure Yoga were quick to lend a hand.
“It was quite unbelievable, the support I’ve received from everybody at the studio,” says Thompson. “People I’ve never met before, people I see once a week, and then people I know very well, the support has been just so humbling.”
When Jen Dalgleish and Amber Stratton, co-owners of Pure Yoga, found out about the fire, they thought it was the perfect opportunity to bundle the opening of their new yoga studio in Centretown with a special fundraising event to help Thompson.
Thompson has been working at Pure Yoga as a karmic yogi, meaning she works a few hours a week cleaning up and keeping the studio tidy, in exchange for free yoga classes. She’s been there almost since the day the company opened its original location in Westboro in March 2012.
“She’s so nice, so sweet, so supportive when we were opening and stuff,” Dalgleish says of Thompson. “We would help anybody out, but she’s extra special.”
The fundraiser was held on Jan. 24. Dalgleish and Stratton asked attendees for a minimum donation of $20 to help Thompson. The event featured a meet and greet and an hour long yoga class led by the co-owners, followed by a raffle with prizes donated from various local businesses and members at the yoga studio. Thompson says the raffle was rigged to give her more tickets than everyone else, so she won many of the prizes.
“It was pretty much the icing on the cake,” says Thompson. “It was just a very emotional week, and all the support was just unreal.”
The event made just over $1,500 for Thompson. She says she plans on using the money to replace necessities and maybe to purchase a few yoga items so she can get back to practising regularly.
Thompson and her roommate are still searching for a new place and would love to move back to Centretown, she says.
“We grew to really love the area,” she says. “We would love to be back there, it’s become kind of our little community.”
Thompson says that everyone – family, friends and coworkers – have helped make the whole ordeal manageable.
“It was very humbling, and just crazy, after a really crappy experience to have all the support from all these amazing people,” says Thompson. “It was pretty great.”