Jennifer Brown / special to the Record

Yoga practitioners at a "Kulathon" at International High School in Paterson. Proceeds will help support programs for cancer patients, caregivers, veterans and at-risk teens.

PATERSON With a white flower tucked in her long, straight, dark brown hair, Jody Domerstad wiped away tears and asked the more than 100 yoga practitioners sitting on mats before her to gather in a semi-circle.

It just feels like a big hug, said Domerstad, a Rutherford resident. Its nice, its comfortable, and I think thats what I need right now.

Domerstad, a yoga instructor for 20 years, gave the opening speech before a six-hour-long yoga practice on Saturday at Patersons International High School. The event was a fundraiser hosted by Kula for Karma, a Franklin Lakes-based nonprofit that provides targeted populations in the tri-state area with therapeutic yoga and meditation.

But Domerstad would not be teaching Saturday; One month ago, she underwent surgery for a tumor in her brain. Domerstad attributed the mental teachings of yoga the practice of calming the brains agitations -- for helping her cope with being hospitalized for a month and the possibility that she might not live.

If you can just take a minute and pause and youre willing to go back to yourself, youll have everything that you need, and thats the yoga, she said.

After Domerstads speech, the crowd returned to their mats for the first of several 45-minute-long yoga sessions throughout the afternoon. The event Kula for Karmas first Kulathon sought to raise funds so the organization of more than 300 volunteer yoga teachers can provide more yoga programs to four populations: cancer patients, at-risk teens, caregivers and veterans. Kula 4 Karmas founders hoped Saturdays event which saw more than 125 registrants can bring in more than $17,000 for the cause.

The organization, led by founder Geri Topfer of Franklin Lakes and executive director Penny Feiner of Hawthorne, already supplies more than 300 programs to more than 3,000 individuals throughout the region, Topfer said.

For example, the organization two years ago earned a five-year grant to provide yoga once a week to students in the Paterson public schools, creating a relationship that led International High School to host Saturdays event, Topfer said.

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Franklin Lakes-based nonprofit hosts yoga fundraiser 'Kulathon' in Paterson