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Sonora yoga studio offering donation-based online classes to give back to community

As Gold Country Yoga owner Ellen Cremer told ABC10, the move to make classes free isn't just about restoring body and mind it's about restoring her community, too.

SACRAMENTO, Calif — With many local business owners in the fitness community pivoting to digital, a Tuolumne County yoga studio is hosting online classes — for free.

As Gold Country Yoga owner Ellen Cremer told ABC10, the move isn't just about restoring body and mind, it's about restoring her community, too.

"One of the silver linings of the coronavirus that I see is that it really inspires generosity," Cremer said. "This is a time where it's not just about 'how can I keep myself safe? How can I survive this for myself?'"

Instead, Cremer said it's about helping neighbors, "and we see that in our Sonora community in a lot of different ways."

Cremer has been the sole owner and operator of Gold Country Yoga since 2013, and now her rural studio in the Sierra Foothills is going digital with donation-based classes.

Gold Country Yoga's live online classes are free of charge with 25% of donations going to the Sonora Area Foundation, an organization that's been providing grants and assisting the communities in Tuolumne County for the last 30 years.

Cremer and her husband, Mark Holmes, never thought they'd settle in Sonora. But as Holmes explained, the response from their community and beyond has been remarkable.

"We've been amazed," Holmes said. "We've been able to make three substantial donations to the Sonora Area Foundation."

Before marrying Cremer, Holmes helped produce visual effects for several popular movies and TV shows including "Forrest Gump," which earned his team an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1994.

Before the pandemic turned everyone's world upside down, Holmes was spending most of his time continuing to build his family's Sonora home. But now, his life has come full circle as he supports his wife's business and their rural yoga studio in the age of social distancing.

"I used to produce yoga DVDs, and I used to work in Hollywood and in movies and on TV shows and commercials, music videos... But I kind of got out of that world." Holmes said. "We were up here building a house and homesteading and raising food and cats and chickens, and then suddenly the coronavirus hits and it's like ''OK, I guess we're going back into high gear to try and save our business and also to help people.'"

Cremer grew up in Germany. After a career as a trained professional dancer, she began exploring yoga. Her studies led her from New York City to California where she's made her home and livelihood in a place she never could have predicted.

"If you would've asked me 10 years ago 'could you imagine living in the forest building a house and growing food and teaching yoga?' No, probably not," Cremer said with a laugh.

Follow the conversation with Lina Washington on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You can e-mail Lina at LWashington@abc10.com. 

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