by Olivia Young<\/p>\n
The Bronx Yoga Lab at 5500 Broadway suffered its second sprinkler malfunction of the year March 8. The issue led to what staff estimated was 8 to 9 inches of water pooled in the corner of the studio, three days without operation and the need for costly repairs.<\/p>\n
But community members swiftly came together to support the Marble Hill-based hot yoga studio, which offers classes, retreats and workshops. A local fundraiser has raised thousands of dollars to go toward repairs for the studio.<\/p>\n
Co-owners Kerry Donegan and Dionne Presinal took over the studio in February 2020 after starting out as students five years prior. Now, they have built a community of more than 100 members and roughly 450 monthly classgoers, general manager Dereck Deblois said. Despite the recent setback, their connection to Bronx Yoga Lab runs deep, and they are set on staying open to serve their students, Donegan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really fighting for them as much as we are the business,\u201d Donegan said. \u201cIt\u2019s just really important to us that everybody that comes here has a safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n
On March 17, studio student Edith Lucas and nonprofit Friendly Fridge BX founder Sara Allen \u2014 both with longstanding ties to Bronx Yoga Lab \u2014 launched a GoFundMe campaign for repairs. As of April 6, community members donated $10,675. The goal is $30,000, most of which will go toward tearing up and replacing the studio floor, according to Deblois.<\/p>\n
Deblois said maintenance companies estimated total repair costs would fall between $50,000 and $60,000.<\/p>\n
When the first sprinkler burst on Jan. 21, the leak was less severe as it only ran for about 15 minutes, Donegan said. But, it still flooded from the studio into the hallway, forced a three-day closure and cost roughly $10,000 to repair, according to Deblois.<\/p>\n
The day of the second leak, there was no one in the studio at the time, and the sprinkler ran for more than 30 minutes before an instructor arrived, Deblois said. The water marked the orange carpet with dark-colored spots that still remain despite repeated cleanings, and seeped into the bathroom, the hallway, and the break room of the Advanced Endoscopy Center next door, Deblois said.<\/p>\n
Repairs at the endoscopy center were underway when The Press visited March 25, and were completed the following weekend, Steven Housberg, administrator at the center, said.<\/p>\n
The New York City Fire Department was not able to confirm the cause of the sprinkler malfunction to The Press. Deblois said all eight sprinkler heads were replaced with ones that are hydrated, making them better suitable for high-temperature rooms like those in a hot yoga studio.<\/p>\n
The property management company of the building, Manhattan-based ABS Partners Real Estate, declined to comment on the incident.<\/p>\n
Regular expenses are harder to manage with the added burden of repair costs, Deblois explained. The lab makes it a priority to still pay instructors when classes are cancelled, and the hot studio has a higher utility bill than most since they have to maintain a temperature ranging from 95 to 105 degrees.<\/p>\n
They are also still recovering from a total of six days in lost revenue, as membership fees were also frozen for students during closure, Deblois said. The lab is now open and operating at full capacity, but a few classes have to be cancelled weekly to work around maintenance scheduling, Deblois said.<\/p>\n
Repairs are still underway in the hallway, lobby, wall molding and the bathroom, Deblois said, but the work should be wrapped up by April 11. After those repairs are finished, the lab has to focus on securing funds for repairing the studio floor. Without the GoFundMe, Deblois said, they would have to rely on insurance funds, which could take time to process.<\/p>\n
Fundraiser organizers Lucas and Allen said their connection to the lab drove them to want to help.<\/p>\n
Lucas, who has been a student at Bronx Yoga Lab for over a decade, said her bond with Donegan and Presinal started while the two were instructors. Lucas\u2019 son, Jason Johnson, got into a car accident 15 years ago that left one side of his body with limited mobility, she said. Donegan and Presinal created modified sessions that work for Johnson in his wheelchair.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people come into the studio, they carry a lot,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cSometimes they\u2019re excited and there\u2019s a lot of hope, sometimes people have grief, some people have sadness. It\u2019s a good place where you have time for an hour or two to yourself where you can just reconnect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen and fellow Friendly Fridge BX founder Selma Raven had their first date at Bronx Yoga Lab seven years ago. As they built a life together, the lab remained a constant as a place to work out, but also as a fundraising partner for Friendly Fridge. Allen said when she heard the lab was having trouble, she and Raven immediately wanted to be a part of their support network.<\/p>\n
Throughout the process, Donegan maintained that the studio has been holding it together for the sake of their students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a commitment that we have to the studio and the people in it that drives us and keeps us going,\u201d Donegan said. \u201cIt would be easy enough to say \u2018Done,\u2019 and walk away, but we both know that\u2019s not the right thing to do \u2014 for ourselves, for the studio or for the community. So that\u2019s why we\u2019re fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tBronx Yoga Lab,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Marble Hill yoga studio,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx flooding damage,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t yoga studio fundraiser NYC,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t sprinkler malfunction NYC\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Olivia Young The Bronx Yoga Lab at 5500 Broadway suffered its second sprinkler malfunction of the year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,76976,76974,76975,9,24,63,76978,129,131,130,76977],"class_list":{"0":"post-192361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-bronx-flooding-damage","10":"tag-bronx-yoga-lab","11":"tag-marble-hill-yoga-studio","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-sprinkler-malfunction-nyc","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news","19":"tag-yoga-studio-fundraiser-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}