Karen Torrone knows just how powerful yoga can be.
"Stress relief, health and wellness, a sense of calm and ease," said Torrone, our Staten Islander of the Week.
For the last 6 years, Torrone has been inspiring her students to reach for greatness.
She opened 5 Boro Power Yoga with a few key goals in mind.
"To create leaders, to create community and to be of service," she said.
From day 1, Torrone has been giving back through her New Dorp yoga studio where you'll often find pay-by-donation classes on the calendar.
It's when students can donate goods or money as payment.
Torrone sends it all to charities here at home and across the globe.
"We let them come to take class whether they can give a dollar or they just come to give themselves to the charities," she said. "We find it to be a really powerful message for our community."
Torrone's journey started with tragedy after her mother was murdered in 1998.
"I was angry and wanted answers and I wanted to kill the people that killed my mom and her boyfriend," she said.
Torrone eventually found healing through yoga.
Since then, she's been committed to helping others get back on their feet.
"I learned through giving my own experience to others, countless people have found a healing space here," she said. "The opportunity to get through things even in our hardest and darkest times."
It's that same love and support that keeps her students on the mat.
"Everyone says, 'I got something out of this or my life is better because of this,'" said Nikki Black. "Yoga is old but it's the people that bring it to you that brings such newness to it and that's what Karen does. It's amazing."
"I've been able to thrive and really just come into my best self," said Shelby Coffrey, Torrone's student.
And so, for working past her own struggles to help others do the same, Karen Torrone is our Staten Islander of the Week.