Purcellville offers outdoor yoga class at mini-forest Sunday

Purcellville is using its mini-forest as more than a backdrop. On Sunday, May 31, the town will host a gentle outdoor yoga session at the Purcellville Mini-Forest at 4 p.m., then invite participants to explore the site as part of its Discover Nature’s Secrets series.

The class is limited to 25 people, giving the event a small, community feel rather than the scale of a typical drop-in fitness class. Participants are asked to bring a yoga mat or towel and complete a waiver form in advance.

Jacqlyn Riposo will lead the session while she completes yoga teacher training through Yoga Time Studio. The town said Riposo was inspired by outdoor yoga classes that blended movement and nature, a detail that fits the purpose of this program: to make yoga feel tied to place, landscape and shared public space rather than confined to a studio floor.

That setting matters because the mini-forest itself is part of a larger town project that began in 2024 on town-owned property on South 20th Street. The Town of Purcellville and the volunteer Tree and Environment Sustainability Committee have been transforming a grassy lot into a species-rich area that benefits wildlife and improves water quality, with support from a Virginia Trees for Clean Water grant through the Virginia Department of Forestry. The town and Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy have said the site was planted using the Miyawaki Method.

The yoga class is one stop in a broader Discover Nature’s Secrets lineup that has moved through a range of hands-on environmental events this year. Visit Loudoun lists earlier 2026 programs including salt monitoring on Feb. 22, Creek Critters of the Catoctin on March 29 and a make-and-take suncatcher windchime event on April 26. A Purcellville Parks & Recreation Advisory Board report also points to more nature-themed programming ahead, including a June 28 bluebird walk led by the Girl Scouts, a July 26 honeybee program with the Loudoun Beekeepers Association and an Aug. 30 rock painting event.

The mini-forest project has also been built through volunteer labor, with the Tree and Environment Sustainability Committee helping lead planting, fencing and invasive species removal. In July 2025, the town said volunteer days would continue through the end of the grant period in 2026.

For Purcellville, the yoga session is not just a class on a Sunday afternoon. It is another sign that the mini-forest is being used as a working public space, where wellness, ecology and neighborhood programming are taking root together.