When I saw the notice above the water fountain I knew the event was going to draw an overflow crowd. After working undercover for three weeks, several women billing themselves as MJ’s Fan Club had revealed they were going to celebrate MJ’s upcoming nuptials after her Tuesday morning Yoga Basics class.

All you really need to know is MJ Daniels is Yoga Director and teacher at Ballard Health Club, and that everyone loves her.

MJ’s morning classes are full year round with ages 18-80 all waiting for her guidance on their mats. In order to crash the Tuesday event I went to stake a place 20 minutes before the start of class.

All around men and women were chatting from their mats, reminiscing about how many years they had been taking classes with MJ. How they had found her. Scary experiences with other teachers. Sure enough MJ had to turn away people at the door; the class has a limit of 30 people.

At least one member of the Olympic Health Club Silver Sneakers Club pays the drop-in fee to attend MJ’s class every week. On any given day at the club in the base of the Ballard Building there are different teachers and different classes, all with their own followings.

Perhaps it’s MJ’s smile, or her pig tails. Maybe students sense she is a dog-lover (she has three) and that she lives locally (Crown Hill) but she definitely has a fan club. Underneath MJ’s nose three women had been collecting funds for three weeks to fund a a special wedding gift. The effort began with the gift, a photograph called Namaste Boy.

Sooz Appel, BJ Douglas and club mate Linda were the main organizers. They printed hot pink flyers inviting fellow fans to contribute to the gift.

They placed the flyers on the inside of every locker in the Women’s Locker room and enlisted a male counterpart to do likewise in the men’s (whether it was accomplished as completely is unknown). They slipped flyers into people’s yoga mats when MJ wasn’t looking and asked friends to pass the word along to other classes.

Adults who regularly attend MJ’s classes become connected, especially when they’ve been taking MJ’s classes for seven years. People like to put their mat in the same place, gravitating toward the front or the back, next to the mirror or as far away as possible.

Then there’s mat talk before class which is how Sooz and BJ discovered that they had attended high school in the same town in Michigan. Within a day they had discovered another link. Sooz had worked with BJ’s husband before they were married.

In the small world way of things, BJ now owns a dog that MJ had wanted to adopt and she introduced a former teacher to MJ. For while they even did yoga retreats together. Sooz and BJ attend up to four classes a week with MJ.

Although they know there are other great yoga and exercise teachers there they find her classes gentle and consider her an exceptionally gifted teacher.

Before MJ’s arrival on Tuesday there was an extra buzz in the yoga room. The Friday before Sooz had given MJ an invitation stating, “We your friends and yoga students would like to celebrate your upcoming wedding after your 9:15 class on Tuesday.”

Club staff guarded the secret effort by discreetly accepting the donations at the front desk and then passing them along to Sooz. In short order there was enough for the gift plus extra that MJ could use as she saw fit, for her wedding costs or for a charity.

After class people gathered with their yoga mats in the reception area that opens onto the bottom stairs in the Ballard Building. Sooz stood where there is usually a stack of towels.

“Here she comes,” someone called and as MJ came around the corner everyone clapped.

That might have been when the tears started. Without much fuss Sooz presented the photo along with a small book filled with good wishes. BJ had made a collage for the cover. MJ started to cry as she accepted the photograph.

In the photo a boy in Nepal is holding his hands in namaste, which is often translated as everything that is holy in me salutes everything that is holy in you, or the light in me salutes the light in you.

The story of the photograph and how it led to founding of Namaste Children’s Fund, a non-profit that supports education in Nepal, is yet another mini-miracle of coincidences and connections. After MJ wiped away tears she announced, “Group hug.” Everyone crowded in around her as staff members beamed from the perimeter.

“It just feels good to do something for another person,” Sooz said later. “We were happy to do something for such a gifted teacher.”

By the time Sooz got home after Tuesday class, MJ had already left her a message. She wanted the extra money to go to Namaste Children’s Fund