The community is invited to Mandel JCC’s free Downward Dog Days of Summer event on July 14th

BEACHWOOD, Ohio – The Mandel Jewish Community Center has scheduled its first-ever Downward Dog Days of Summer event on July 14th, which will include a dog walk and yoga-in-the-park session. The action will take place in the Acacia Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks, on the northeast corner of Richmond and Cedar Road in Lyndhurst.

The outdoor fitness event is held to give people a chance to walk their dog in the park, meet new people, and have a yoga session with JCC instructor Cynthia Chylik. The dog walking part of the event takes place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and the yoga class from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Downward Dog Days of Summer is free and open to the community. The participants meet in the parking lot. Pre-registration is not required and if it rains the event will take place on July 21st.

“Our Group Fitness Manager Jill Stovsky came up with the idea for the event,” said Mandel JCC General Manager of Fitness and Membership Joe Schillero. “She decided to start the event because we have seen many of our members return over the past few months (to the Almond JCC, 260001 S. Woodland Road in Beachwood). this renewed focus on their physical and mental well-being and fellowship with other people. So we wanted to offer the opportunity to do these things.

“And also for people in the community who are not (JCC) members, to give them the opportunity to move around and spend time with others, because we know that these are unfortunately things that people in the past have not could experience year. “

Schillero has been running the fitness and water sports centers as well as the leisure and member activities of the JCC for a little over a year. He said people are coming back to use the JCC’s fitness facilities as it hosted more than 3,400 individual users last week. The JCC, like other buildings, was closed last March due to the pandemic. However, it only stayed closed from late March to June when a gradual reopening began.

“When we closed, we also did virtual programming,” said Schillero. “We’ve now ascended to a place where it’s pretty normal. (Attendance) has definitely increased every week. As the months have passed, people have been vaccinated, they feel safer, and our numbers have increased. So we’re building on what it was before COVID-19. “

Regarding the event on July 16, Schillero said: “Even if someone does not have a dog, he is still very welcome to take part. We just want people to go out, meet some people and enjoy exercise as a community.

“I think the most important thing we want to tell people is that we know that the isolation over the past year has severely affected both their mental and physical health, and with an opportunity to do so.”

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