Stefania Maiale dabbled in yoga as a young adult. That early interest led her to introduce the practice to her adopted son, Jacob, and eventually bring it to help more youths at Camp Rainbow in Schwenksville. Courtney Diener-Stokes stretched her journalistic muscles to bring the story to the Daily Local News.

Yoga for Maiale was originally a restorative factor from her kidney-replacement surgery. It blossomed into certification and her own studio in Collegeville.

When Jacob — who had had chemically dependent parents — started struggling with his mood and scholastics, she introduced it to him.

From there, it was a short bridge (pose) to gaining a yoga cert for instructing children and introducing it to Camp Rainbow, a summer program in which her boy was already enrolled.

“Sometimes even adults, but mostly children, it’s very hard to develop skills to calm down or regroup, or evaluate,” she said. “It’s helpful to do the different breathing exercises and poses — it’s very beneficial for that purpose.”

Kim Murphy, Camp Rainbow director said, “Yoga just adds to the whole purpose of why we do Camp Rainbow — to help kids. It’s really helping the children be able to look at themselves and afterward be able to say, ‘I do feel better after that and more relaxed after that.’”

More on these youthful yoga participants is at the Daily Local News.