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It’s hard to believe that another chapter could possibly be added to the story of yoga, which already spans the globe and the millennia. And yet a new, perhaps unlikely group — at-risk and incarcerated youth — is discovering the stress relief, mood-enhancement and improved balance and fitness benefits of regular yoga practice.

That’s thanks to the New Leaf Yoga Foundation. The Toronto-based registered charity brings downward dog, shavasana, meditation and conscious breathing — and the above-mentioned benefits they confer — to teens “overcoming histories of abuse, neglect, incarceration, gang-involvement, addiction, marginalization and other factors that have led them to be identified as ‘at risk,’” according to the Foundation’s website, www.newleafyoga.org. 

Those involved insist yoga teaches real-world coping skills (focus, relaxation and calming breath, for example) that youth can access to constructively deal with anxiety and anger rather than acting out.  Plus, it’s fun. Judging by the testimonials of former students...

On any given weekend you might find Oshawa, Ontario's Rob Weir catching a pass from former National Hockey League legend Darryl Sittler, attempting to deke around hall-of-famer Marcel Dionne, or ducking and dodging the elbows and slashes of the Hanson Brothers of Slap Shot fame.

Swirling around the ice with former pros is an unlikely place for a guy like Weir, who didn't even start playing hockey until the age of 20, but he's got a good reason. Weir's the program coordinator of the Heart & Stroke Foundations' Hockey For Heart series of charitable hockey tournaments across Ontario. It's his job to play hockey with the pros.

"It's the greatest job in the world," says Weir, 40, with that same sense of awe as a 10-year-old autograph seeker by the side doors of the Air Canada Centre. "I'm literally getting paid to play hockey with [former Toronto Maple Leafs great] Wendel Clark."

Getting to share the ice with the likes of Clark came with a cost, though. The whole reason the Hockey For Heart tournaments exist is because Weir witnessed his own father Roger Weir have a heart attack on the ice at the age of 46 while playing a game with him in 1993.

"I was sitting on the bench, looked down at the other end of the ice where the play was, looked back at my dad and saw that he had fallen over and instantly knew that something wasn't right because I knew it wasn't from something that had happened during the play," Weir recalls of that tragic night.

Put on your short-shorts and get ready to boogie - that is if you wanna have some fun on the dance floor for a good cause. Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation (PMHF) has scored the inimitable Richard Simmons to lead its first ever Dance To Conquer Cancer fundraiser on February 12. That's in the afternoon, then in the evening, disco queen Gloria Gaynor will be the guest performer at the Boogie Nights fundraising dinner and dance.

"Our goal is to conquer cancer in our lifetime," PMHF president and CEO said in a statement. "We hope that our Dance to Conquer Cancer fundraiser will inspire those touched by cancer, while offering people a one-of-a-kind, engaging event using the elements of dance and disco! It's a great way to start off the New Year with some fitness and family fun and support for an important cause." 

Taking place at the Paramount Conference and Event Centre in Woodbridge, Ont., just north of the city, Disco Days participants will move and groove to music from the 1970s and 1980s from noon until 4 p.m.

Simmons will lead an estimated 500 registrants to "Sweat to the Oldies" with his style of dancersize, while So You Think You Can Dance Canada choreographer Blake McGrath will lead a dance workshop and teach two disco dances for everyone to perform together.