Scranton’s Yoga on the Rooftop returns for July Fourth fundraiser

Scranton’s holiday skyline ritual is back on the roof. Yoga on the Rooftop will return Saturday, July 4, for its 13th annual class atop the Electric City Parking Garage at Marketplace at Steamtown, with a one-hour session set for 9 to 10 a.m. and a suggested $20 donation. Walk-ins are welcome, the class will run rain or shine, and attendees are told to enter on Penn Avenue and park on the fourth level for the easiest rooftop access.

The morning will mix movement with live music and a breakfast finish. Hilary Steinberg of Jaya Yoga and instructor Lily Mackarey will lead the class, while Philharmonic musicians Leah Valenches, Peter Brubaker and Gabriel Schaff will play during the session. After class, participants will get light breakfast fare courtesy of Maximum Zen, adding to the event’s easygoing holiday cadence.

What keeps the rooftop class going is the way it has settled into Scranton’s July Fourth rhythm. Steinberg started Yoga on the Rooftop with community partners 12 years ago, when organizers thought only 30 to 35 people might show up. It has since grown into a familiar gathering that now draws hundreds, turning a rooftop garage into a place where neighbors, families and regulars return year after year for the same short morning practice.

The fundraiser side is just as central. Proceeds support the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic’s educational and outreach programs, including Music in Our Schools, Music in Our Senior Centers, Once Upon an Orchestra, Young People’s Concerts and a mentoring program for high school students. The orchestra says Music in Our Schools reaches about 600 students a year with proper funding, making the yoga class part of a larger pipeline for youth music education in the region.

That makes the event more than a scenic class with a good view. It lands in the middle of a busy Independence Day weekend for the Philharmonic, which is also scheduled to present free concerts on July 3 in Scranton and July 4 in Wilkes-Barre. In Scranton, the rooftop still offers the unusual combination that has carried it for 13 years: a holiday-morning yoga mat, a city landmark and a fundraiser that sends the morning’s energy straight back into the arts community.