By Molly Schreiber
A friend recently sent me a quote with the message that it made her think of me. The quote was, “If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.” I was honored to get that because it is my hope that this quote does exemplify my life and the work that I do.
This quote caused me to also pause and reflect on how far the mission of Challenge to Change has grown and how far it reaches. I’d like to take you on a little stroll so that you can also see where we came from and where we’re going. Are you ready to take a walk down memory lane with me? Here we go.
Many of you have read my story and know that my love of yoga came around the time that my husband passed away. Yoga helped me heal from my journey of sadness. It helped me move forward to find love again. It helped me push through my pain so I could find myself and who I am at the true core of my being.
When I stepped back into the elementary classroom after my husband passed, much had changed not only in myself, but in the outside world. My students had an increased need for stillness and peace, and I knew that yoga and mindfulness could help give this to them. Thus the original idea for a place to teach yoga and mindfulness was born.
The physical doors of Challenge To Change opened in 2016. It was quite a risk to take as a mother of four to open a studio for children in a town of 60,000. However, I was met with success, and soon families were entering our space to practice yoga and mindfulness together.
But, as many of you know, this wasn’t enough. I wanted to reach as many children as possible, so in 2017 we started our journey into the schools. This journey consisted of four women, thirty-one bags full of lavender-scented eye pillows, and a mission on our hearts to help the children we taught find their calm.
On that day, we served four schools in the city of Dubuque. Fast forward to today, January 2022. We are currently served over 200 schools in the state of Iowa and have begun to expand to other states and abroad.
The mission when I started Challenge To Change was to reach as many students as I could and share with them the tranquility and peacefulness that I found through the practice of yoga; to give them the healing tools that I had found to in order to live a more positive life. And look at what has come from the delivery of these practices! So many more students have been touched than I could ever have dreamed.
This mission has exceeded my wildest imaginings and I’m excited to what the future holds.
The Challenge To Chance Mission Statement
Through evidence-based yoga and mindfulness programming, Challenge to Change, Inc. provides preventative social and emotional skills benefiting the mind, body, and emotional state to people of all ages. We are committed to empowering learners to utilize mindful resources in order to navigate the world around them.
