Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

My name is Jenine Lehfeldt and I am the founder of Sweet Serenity Yoga and Wellness we are a boutique yoga and fitness studio located in the heart of North Delta here in Vancouver BC. My journey to owning a yoga studio was quite an intense one! I had a film career as a hair and makeup artist for the movie and TV industry in Vancouver for 12 plus years. It was there that I had an on the job injury where I got electrocuted, doing permanent damage to my ulnar nerve in my right hand, and thereby ending my dream career. As you can imagine that was a fairly devastating incident, in which case I kind of lost my way and I hit a rock bottom. Eventually, I became an alcoholic and tried to take my life. This was obviously an intense ordeal at which point I was mandated to go to a recovery house where I re-found my love of yoga. At that time I had no idea that there was yoga for recovery or trauma-informed yoga and I received an education in this while I was there. It helped me on so many levels that I felt, once I got out, that my goal was to share that discovery and that love of yoga and fitness and Wellness with other people to help them to recover from what ails them. There was a yoga studio near my house that I started attending once I was out of recovery and happened to find out that they were going to be going out of business. What a great opportunity to take over that space and start fresh with my ideas and my idea of what a perfect one-stop-shop would be - where we offer yoga, barre, fusion and dance fitness as well as Yoga Therapy, Counselling and Reiki. This place gives the opportunity to our community of people who may be seeking self-care and an hour a day where they get to take a little slice of self-improvement and better themselves and by extension our community.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

Since day one SSYW has been a pillar in our community by connecting with and doing fundraisers for needs that comes up throughout the year. For example, Deltassist offers local family and community programs and services. We help them by collecting for food drives, as well as running fundraisers specifically for their mental health programs and recovery programs (as obviously those are important to me). We offer classes like “NamaSlay Metal Yoga or Barre” where people can come out and release all of their pent-up anger and anguish and just leave it on their mat. It is such a powerful class! We also run all kinds of fundraisers here for local community animal shelters as well as for Perfect Pastures Animal Sanctuary, where I do all of their administrative and social media. I volunteer for them picking up animals from further up north and bringing them down so that they can be adopted out by our local community members. Even some of our students have been so fortunate to adopt rescue animals because of our efforts here. We offer Cat Yoga, Dog and Bunny Yoga here at the studio where we bring adoptable pets to come to play while we “do” yoga. This helps us to get people exposed to them and the funds go towards the animal sanctuary. We are huge supporters of other small businesses in our area and are constantly running either contests, giveaways or having a pop-up shop in the studio to help support each other through all of this covid. Especially since so many small businesses are in dire need of exposure.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

I realize that I have really created my dream here and that despite being closed for 304 days out of 2 years due to covid, I can persevere and push through. We were one of the first studios to pivot to online when covid first struck and we were all scrambling to find some normalcy. Our remarkable instructors were teaching from home on a volunteer basis through that first shirt down! We of course still had to pay rent and had so much overhead that we had to sell all of our props in order to make rent. Which then disqualified us from some of the government assistance programs because we had an “income”. Not to mention we didn’t qualify for wage subsidies as our instructors are contractors (our second largest overhead expense). I tell you through sheer grit and determination and possibly some ego we persevered. I am so proud that we're still here serving our community and will continue to grow and expand our reach for those who seek it.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

North Delta's Premier Destination for Yoga, Barre, Fusion, and Dance Fitness! Your age? Your gender? Your fitness level? Does. Not. Matter. Our commUNITY is for everyBODY Take your first #smallstep to your #biggoals Yoga | Barre | Fusion Fitness 👣 Move Better, Feel Better! 💙 Community driven for ALL Beings & Bodies 🌿 Mindful Healing Movement 🐾 Rescue Advocates ∴ In-Studio | Zoom | VOD | 1on1 We are a family-owned inclusive community space of real people offering real functional movement for all beings and bodies. We like to think of ourselves as everyone "3rd place". The 3rd place is where you should want to be when you are not at home (your 1st place) or at work (your 2nd place). It is a haven that will allow you to recharge and relax in the company of like-minded individuals. A place to escape to daily, or at least consistently, where you can converse on subjects of interest with other people, who also find these subjects interesting. At Sweet Serenity Yoga and Wellness we make it easy to feel welcomed and at ease. From day one, we welcome students with a smile and are typically welcomed by name. We have been told on multiple occasions that when people first walk in our doors that they feel as though the space has given them a warm hug. The fact that there is a huge range of classes available so that you can decide what kind of class you feel like participating in that day, and what serves you best at this moment so we can meet you where you are. On top of our regularly scheduled classes, we've made every effort to offer a huge range of special workshops and events that promote community and connection. Being seen, being heard, and being welcomed: these things are not easy to come by anymore. And they are really so very important and at the core of everything we do here at Sweet Serenity Yoga and Wellness.

Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

Being that mental health is that the core of all that we do and the fact that I am so open and real about my struggles helps us foster a sense of safety for people to feel like they too can learn and grow in a safe and nurturing space no matter their current physical or emotional circumstances. We have made such a huge impact not only on our community as a whole but also on each individual who steps through that door. From cancer patients finding solace and comfort to people in recovery just making it through one day at a time, new moms who need a "break" and "me time", and babyboomers who refuse to let the passage of time take hold of them and choose the joy of movement, and those who suffer from their own mental health demons finally finding their 3rd place of community and connection that they so desperately need to survive. This is what we've managed to create here, a hub, an "isle of misfit toys" if you will. A safe, nurturing, and accessible space where we can all let our guards down and open our hearts. This studio has become more than a job, it has become my life's mission and passion and every fibre of my being knows that we need to be here to help to serve our community.