"I believe there needs to be a greater focus on improving quality of life for cancer survivors through holistic and complementary treatments like yoga. Few survivors receive help after treatment for the physical and emotional toil it takes on them.” - Founder, Yoga Bear, Halle Tecco
After reading a study about how yoga can help people recover from the affects of cancer treatments, budding entrepreneur Halle Tecco founded Yoga Bear to provide free yoga classes for cancer patients and survivors. A life-long cancer advocate, avid yoga enthusiast, writer for the Huffington Post and a full-time MBA student at Harvard Business School, Halle’s unique skill set enabled her to establish and expand Yoga Bear into a vibrant, national organization.
Increasingly, scientific and medical research demonstrates the beneficial effects of yoga as complementary therapy to cancer treatment. But cancer treatment can cost upwards of $100,000, so the price of yoga therapy, which can be expensive and is rarely covered by insurance, often prevents survivors from taking classes. Yoga Bear partners with hospitals, yoga studios, cancer centers and support groups to offer free yoga classes to those who need it most.
With Halle’s leadership, Yoga Bear has grown from a small nonprofit organization partnering with a handful of San Francisco based yoga studios, to a national nonprofit working with 190 studios and four hospitals – in just three years. By leveraging a set of talented volunteers and studio partnerships, this innovative organization operates on a small budget and uses all donated funds to develop programs, which is key to its growth.
Now operating in 26 states, Yoga Bear has touched the lives of more than 2,000 cancer patients and survivors and has provided more than $100,000 worth of free yoga passes to survivors since inception. Its online community serves as the largest portal for information and dialogue on yoga and cancer.
Halle Tecco is a 2009 Woman of Worth.
Yoga Bear’s founder, Halle Tecco has been selected as a 2009 L’Oreal Women of Worth honoree! The honoree with the most online votes gets a $25,000 donation for their organization. This would be the largest donation Yoga Bear has received to date, but they really need your help to make this happen. VOTE!