MADISON, Wis. — Megan and Carlos Tucker had one goal in mind when they opened DragonFly Hot Yoga in June 2011. To get their Midwestern family, friends and neighbors to try yoga.
Now, the couple is about to approach their 10-year anniversary of opening, and they’re afraid their business won’t survive to see the 10-year-mark.
“This plea for help is the last thing I thought I would ever have to write,” Megan Tucker wrote in an email to her clients. “For the last year, we’ve been told to start a GoFundMe by clients, journalists, neighbors, and friends. I resisted. I thought surely we could figure out a way to survive. Surely, we would find a way to pay rent. Surely, there would be protection for small businesses. But there wasn’t (at least not for our industry) and now I am worried.”
Dragonfly is a small local business with four locations throughout the Dane County region. It employs more than 100 instructors and staff members. The hot yoga studio has won Best of Madison every year since opening.
“When the pandemic began, I thought we could make it through without a direct plea for help. I thought government assistance, continued support from our wonderful community, and a pivot to online streaming would be enough for us to squeak by to see the other side. We tried really hard to not have to do a full-on fundraiser. We permanently closed our beloved Flyght (indoor cycling business) in hopes that would help save Dragonfly. We have wiped out our savings, put a second mortgage on our home, borrowed money from family to pay our bills and care for our children. We’ve applied for every grant and government loan out there. Currently, there are no government programs helping the fitness industry. Many boutique gyms (like ours) actually run on small margins, so the pandemic poses a huge challenge on our very existence,” Megan Tucker wrote in her email.
Dragonfly lost nearly 71% of its revenue when the pandemic hit, according to the Tuckers. Now, the couple needs help paying its back rent
“I know that our community needs each other and needs mental and physical wellness spaces after such a devastating year,” Tucker wrote. “We want, more than anything, to be there for you, to hold space for you, to help you heal, and to continue giving back to the community we love and call home.
The Tuckers say the funds will be used to pay the following back rents at it’s four studio locations:
Fitchburg: $60,000
Downtown: $56,714.90
Middleton: $76,694.68
Sun Prairie: $75,935.20
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