Dear Friends, we’d love you to join us for our up and coming event ‘Epic Meal for an Epic Cause’. But first I’d like to share with you a little bit about the history of ASMY West End and how it all began.
The History of ASMY West End
ASMY West End has a long and interesting history. As you see now, the centre is huge and spacious and most of us know it as our yoga sanctuary where we go to chill out, forget about our problems and stresses and refresh, but it wasn’t always like that. In fact, ASMY West End started with a very humble beginning in my family’s lounge room close to 27 years ago? Yes, amazing as it sounds now, this is how ASMY West End began, and it wasn’t a very big lounge room at that, just a regular family lounge room. At the time my children were 5 and 7 and we rented a small Queenslander in Norfolk Road opposite the West End Community House. We had a sign in our front window inviting people along for free kirtan, meditation and a vegetarian meal, and even though the lounge room wasn’t very big, we used to squeeze in 30 people or more every Sunday night. Sometimes there were so many people, they would be sitting all the way down the front stairs outside. I used to have a lovely, small no-dig garden and every Sunday before the gathering, I’d pick the organic salad. We were very grassroots back then, but people absolutely loved the kirtan and the fresh delicious food and numbers continued to grow, so much so that after 3 years, we moved to a larger house along Montague Road.
At this house, the landlord allowed us to remove walls to make the lounge room larger. We renovated the house as it was a very old Queenslander, removed the carpet and sanded the floors and viola we had a bigger centre that was still central for everyone. At this centre, we added more programs and began our yoga asana journey. We could only comfortably really fit 8 to 10 people into the room for yoga, but some classes had way more. West End has always been a community minded suburb and the people coming were always more than happy to squeeze up to allow everyone to fit in. I have very fond memories of that old queenslander and the wonderful outdoor kirtans in the back pagola, the vegetarian BBQ’s and the Chi-Kung classes in the backyard. Many of the programs that we still hold today began in that Montague House. But numbers still kept increasing, so much so that after 5 years we had to move into commercial premises.
I was really worried about how we would pay the rent as previously it was not a concern because it was the family home. However we took that next big step and rented a 60m2 room in Kurilpa St, It was a funky purple building and had a nice hippy vibe. Here the numbers to the yoga asana classes suddenly jumped to over 25, so we never really had to worry about covering the rent after all. The classes were very reasonably priced and the teachers were all friendly, down to earth and all volunteers. And the numbers kept increasing! We ended up renting the whole building and had two nice large spaces, one for meditation and kirtan and the other for yoga asana. Things were going from strength to strength but after 5 years in this funky space, the 2011 floods came and we were inundated. The flood waters reached the ceiling. So we moved yet again.
We found a large open space near Mappins Nursery and did a full renovation taking the space from a dull office to a gleaming upmarket yoga and meditation centre, complete with bamboo flooring and ambient lighting. Here we only had one room but it was very large and we were happy there, but numbers kept increasing and after six and a half years it too was too small for our growing ASMY community, so we moved again.
This time we found our current premises. We are all very happy here and because the space is so large we have plenty of room to continue to grow, but this is it for me, I’m done moving and after 27 years, I’m getting too old for another move lol. But I think you’d agree that this beautiful space is just perfect for our needs.
ASMY a Non Profit Organisation:
As a non-profit organisation, powered by volunteers, ASMY West End has been offering so many wonderful low cost and free or donation programs and events for the past 27 years. We have given out over 10,000 delicious community meals and we are asking very little in return, we only ask that you take this wonderful gift that we are offering. This gift that will transform your life!
As you all know, the cost of living is skyrocketing, but our prices have remained the same for over 8 years. We know that everyone needs what we have to offer and everyone is doing it tough so we plan to do some fundraising events each year so we can continue to offer you free/donation events and reasonable yoga asana classes that absolutely everyone can afford. Let’s face it, our prices are the lowest in Brisbane by a long, long way and we want that to continue for another 27 years to come!
Your Invitation to Help us:
We therefore invite you to ‘Epic Meal for an Epic Cause‘ where we turn the centre into a restaurant for the evening. Everyone loves our delicious food, but this will take things to another level. Come with us on a culinary journey as you savor some of our best vegetarian dishes. Meet our volunteer chefs who love to cook and cook with love, honestly you’ll be able to taste that love, I guarantee it!
We have a large team of chefs and helpers coming together with a diverse array of specialty dishes, each bursting with the authentic flavors, vibrant spices and aromatic herbs to present – All You Can Eat – Vegetarian Buffet Dinner! Don’t worry if you are vegan or gluten free, as with all our programs, we will be catering for you too and there will be plenty to choose from and no extra charge!
What’s on Offer :
An Epic Vegetarian/Vegan Buffet Dinner that includes –
Appetizers – Samosas, Momos, Tandoori paneer or tofu
Curries – Palak Kofta, Butter Paneer, Punjabi Mung Dhal
Fancy Rice & Naan Bread
Salad – Raita
Desserts – Kheer, Almond Toffee Burfi, Gulab Jamun
Drinks – Turmeric Latte and Masala Chai
We look forward to sharing an evening filled with joy, friendship and happy memories.
Please Book by 24th May for catering purposes.
