DandeLyon Love: Learn & Earn Challenge

"A college visit is part of the hope filled engagement students need to make a decision about their future, so they can begin their own art of mindful living".

Following a massive hemorrhagic stroke at age 43, DandeLyon Vredenburg awakening to complete bi-lateral paralysis, confined to bed and a wheelchair, unable to think coherently, speak, produce hormones, or regulate cold/hot, she had to begin her new life.

Her old life, where she had single handedly she created an equine breeding empire, selling her specialized reining horses around the world, was gone. Her devotion to the that business had allowed her to be present in the grace and beauty of her animals for most of the day. Her success was attributed to the emotional connections and love she had with both her stallion and her mares. She wrote about these relationships and connections on one her stallion’s FaceBook pages. Her words and photographs created a FB following of over 600,000 people and later became a book.

For a year following her stroke, DandeLyon focused on her return to health through meditation, nutrition, and love. She found balance and healing with a yoga practice led by a White Lotus trained yogini. In November 2015 DandeLyon began collaborating with her business partner (and now life partner) on The Shiney project, and in March 2016, 20 months post stroke, she gained her Registered Yoga Teacher 200 certification from the prestigious White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara.

Shortly after, DandeLyon began canvasing the Fort Scott Kansas area looking to purchase a suitable space to open a Yoga Studio and Wellness Center. On her first visit to an abandoned 1905 simple gothic church and parish house, she stood in the middle of the sanctuary; the epic architecture, breathtakingly beautiful stain glass windows and the calm feeling of the sanctuary spoke to her. “This place is a place for healing and sharing, built with care  & craftsmanship, steeped with love & hope from 100 years of prayer and worship.” And the next chapter began.

The studio theme was The Art of Mindful Living!  Countless hours were spent rubbing oil into the wood floors and ornate wood work, cleaning and caring for the 1908 Pfeffer Organ and the priceless stained glass windows and little by little it came back to life. She repurposed furniture from the Parish House for the The Shiney Studios to reflect the age and wisdom that the building possessed. It was a mirror of her own life and healing. The Shiney, named for her stallion Twice As Shiney, tells part of her story.

DandeLyon is still healing from her stoke and is the epitome of anti-fragile, more than a survivor, where catastrophic trauma has made her cellular genetics heal stronger. Micro-evolutionary, leaving her with unending reservoirs of compassion, non-judgement, and love.

She and her partner created The Shiney Foundation in 2016 (now DandeLyon Love Foundation), and spends time between Texas, Montana and Bali, she is an artist with a camera, a magical writer, a beautiful yogini, a devoted mother, and a lover of people. She fills the room with her energy and the world with her love. It is no accident that DandeLyon.Love has become her next big project and the DandeLyon Love Foundation her next big passion.

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Finding a new passion at the age of 43 is no less important than finding it before you leave high school. Nearly 20% of first year college students drop out because they are not interested in the program they chose. American high school students know less than 30% of the major college programs available to them and only 25% of the colleges within their own state. College access and equity wanes in the largest cites and smallest communities of America. Students are not given the hope filled engagement they need to make a mindful decision about college.

DandeLyon Love is focusing its 2019-20 charity contributions to help American students align their passion and access local colleges by supporting classroom teachers with college field trip funds.

"We have partnered with a free college & career curriculum provider that challenges students to learn about their state's colleges and college programs using a gamified daily quiz, called ChatterHigh. Students can "LEARN & EARN". Instead of collecting serial box tops to raise funds for college visits, classrooms can use a 'best-in-class' curriculum to earn the funds to visit the colleges they learn about in the program. The more students explore and learn about colleges, the more a school earns. ChatterHigh's point & challenge software makes it simple."

100% of the funds raised in this campaign goes directly to American public school classrooms so teachers can take students to visit the colleges they learn about in class. It's brilliant and mindful.