Happy Anniversary, Pilates On Demand! I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you who have been with me - whether that was Pilates for a Cause classes deep in the pandemic or now with the On Demand library, I am so thankful to be part of your movement journey. Moving forward, I will be uploading classes as I make them rather than dropping them at the first of the month. I'll still send out my newsletter on the first letting you know where we are contributing 20% of our proceeds. But otherwise, look out for new videos throughout the month! And if you haven't joined yet, you have 140+ classes at your finger tips with a monthly subscription. What are you waiting for?! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Realize Your Beauty. Realize Your Beauty promotes positive body image to youth through theatre arts! We bring plays, workshops & camps to youth to promote self-esteem, body positivity, and eating disorder awareness. Their mission: to promote positive body image to children & adolescents by way of theatre arts. To meet their mission, they travel to schools, festivals and local theatres to present educational plays, presentations and workshops. Through their workshops, students discover a new way of thinking about themselves, their bodies and about beauty. Their workshops focus on fostering inner beauty- taking the focus away from societal standards and the pressure to be 'pretty'. They encourage students to put their energy into kindness, integrity and respect towards themselves & others, and focus on developing their own unique inner qualities. They strive to educate our older students about the dangers of dieting and disordered eating. They encourage students to love themselves exactly as they are and to learn the warning signs of an eating disorder. RYB is a not for profit corporation based in NYC, with program offerings in New York and Colorado. Realize Your Beauty proudly works in connection with the Girl Scouts of Greater New York, Girls Inc., and NEDA (the National Eating Disorders Association). To learn more about their incredible work, visit their website: https://realizeyourbeauty.org/home
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If you've been with me awhile, you know that I am not here for diet culture or any language centered around "skinny," "weight loss," or image-focused results. With that, I understand we all have different goals and you have every right to achieve the goal you want to achieve. Here are some of the goals I hear often: - lose weight - get healthier - get fit and toned - feel stronger - work on my posture - ease my pain - achieve "x" movement or exercise - achieve "x" daily functional movement - recover I am going to say something rather controversial - Pilates alone is not a weight loss tool. Its goal is to balance your body so that you are as strong as you are flexible, mobile as you are stable. That means Pilates in addition to a variety of other movement modalities has the opportunity to allow you to achieve your goals. And with that variety, consistency is the key. If you want real results, you must consistently move. Find a routine you can stick with and stick to it, friends. And then, you will begin to see results over time. If you aren't consistent with your movement, your sleep, your eating, your hydration, your mental and spiritual health, then you won't see the progress you want to see or unlock all the potential inside you. So, the word of the month is consistency. Consistency = progress. Keep at it, friends - you can do anything you set your mind to! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Sisters of the Sky. Sisters of the Sky are an organization of professional Black female pilots who are committed to supporting future Black aviators through mentorship, professional development, outreach and scholarship. Their organization provides mentorship, fellowship, and camaraderie to women of color who have had little or no exposure to professional pilot careers. The goal of this mentorship program is to promote the progression and development of women of color seeking careers flying in the aviation industry. Girls Rock Wings (GRoW) is their annual one-day aviation/STEM outreach program where they expose girls of color between the ages of 10-18 years of age to the field of aviation. They will have a discovery flight with a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) who is a woman of color; tour an air traffic control tower; develop a flight plan and fly that flight plan in a simulator; and tour a static display. In 2018 and 2019, their GRoW event was held in Houston, TX at the Lone Star Flight Museum. To date, they have exposed over 100 girls to the field of aviation through our GRoW outreach. To learn more about their incredible work, please visit their website: https://sistersoftheskies.org/ I hope you have been enjoying summer! I lately have been focusing on what my values are versus what my priorities are (thanks to a wonderful presentation led by Nagela Dales through the Harriet Tubman Effect Institute - check them out here!). And I noticed that while self care and health are a large value of mine, I don't always prioritize them - I don't set a strong enough boundary around the sacred time that is taking care of me. Are you mapping out time in your week to prioritize your health? That can be a number of different things - moving, mental health breaks, screen breaks, doctor's appointments, taking fitness classes, seeing a physical therapist, social time with family and friends, nourishing meals, laughter, sunshine. I want to encourage each of you to continue prioritizing one of the biggest values which is YOU and your health - you deserve to give yourself that time to replenish and refresh! And you can always do that through my On Demand classes. It's the first of the month, so check out my latest classes that dropped today! This month, 20% of our proceeds will be contributed to R.Evolución Latina. R.Evolución Latina is an organization that activates individual and collective human growth through artistic experiences for transformation and social change. A Revolution of Evolution, Making a difference through the Arts. THEIR VISION: To grow as a strong organization that empowers and unites the Latino community with full capacity to manage and expand our programs that inspire lives through the arts. CREED OF INCLUSIVITY: In order for there to be INCLUSIVENESS we must be JUST and FAIR in ALL PROCESSES. We must LISTEN, SPEAK OUT, and ACT. LISTEN. It may be uncomfortable along the way, but as we listen we GROW and EVOLVE. And as we grow, we must SPEAK OUT. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE when we MOBILIZE. We encourage you to use your PASSION to ACT. As we continue to fight to dismantle the systems of injustice, we know it will not happen overnight. During this heavy time, SILENCE is not the answer. LOVE IN ACTION is what is needed most RIGHT NOW. Whether it be the senseless violence against a person or community of color or marginalized individuals, we, R.Evolución Latina, say their names and continue to FIGHT FOR JUSTICE alongside our brothers and sisters. LOVE is the only constant through all of this chaos & destruction. In order for there to be a REVOLUTION, we must first EVOLVE, and in our EVOLUTION we condemn any and all hate, racism or violence toward any group of people. We stand by our Asian American/Pacific Islander community as we do with the black community and anyone subjected to discrimination of any kind. THEIR PLEDGE: Dare Go Beyond by pushing my limits, taking risks and accepting challenges, Commit myself to achieving my own goals by challenging no one but myself. Respect The Learning Process by arriving early, listening and being aware of others time and space. Believe that ”I Can” and to understand that mistakes happen and are necessary to help us learn. Support myself as well as other activists by working together with my group and learning from around me. R.Evolución Latina is an affiliate of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. To learn more about their work, visit their website: https://revolucionlatina.org/ Summer is one of my favorite seasons. We may not have summer break like we did when we were kids, but everything still slows down. There is so much extra daylight, which means so much extra time to catch as much vitamin D as you can. Have you heard the saying there is nothing a walk can't cure? That's how I feel about vitamin D - time in the sunshine is so healing, so energizing, so soothing. And what could be better than doing Pilates in the sunshine?! I hope you take time this month to take your practice outdoors to double the benefits! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Brooklyn Public Library's Books Unbanned Campaign. Brooklyn Public Library joins those fighting for the rights of teens nationwide to read what they like, discover themselves, and form their own opinions. Inspired by the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Statement, BPL's Books Unbanned initiative is a response to an increasingly coordinated and effective effort to remove books tackling a wide range of topics from library shelves. The American Library Association documented 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data about censorship in libraries more than 20 years ago. The tally is nearly double that of the 729 book challenges reported in 2021. Most targeted books were for a teen audience and were by or about Black or LGBTQIA+ persons. Across the country, teens continue to face rising attempts at book bans, censorship, and political challenges in their local school and public libraries. Check out the campaign to see just some of the ways young adults can get support from BPL: https://www.bklynlibrary.org/books-unbanned How has your balance been lately? That could be a loaded question with all sorts of meaning for you - your physical balance, your work/life balance to name just a few. Balance is always something to work on, both in the Pilates studio and in life. It will always be shifting, changing, adapting, ebbing and flowing. When we are young, we take our sense of balance for granted. As we age, balance is one of the things that becomes less reliant, less steady. And practice makes better. Check out my new videos for this month and may they bring you balance in more ways than one! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Earth Matter. They seek to reduce the organic waste misdirected into the garbage stream by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting. Earth Matter was conceived in spring 2009 to address the dual problems of resource recovery and healthy soils with a single solution: promoting the local composting of organic waste into a healthy soil amendment. We are passionate about resource recovery and healthy soil as primary goals of a 21st century urban environment. The three founding directors of Earth Matter, Marisa DeDominicis, Kendall Morrison and Charlie Bayrer, bring together many years of experience in urban community greening. They first combined efforts in the Brooklyn-Queens Land Trust (BQLT) healthy soils initiative (2007 to 2008). This project evaluated soil health in 34 community gardens and promoted remediation by organic amendment. Concurrently, they were involved in organizing the Fort Greene Compost Project (2005-present), a community based, volunteer-led effort to capture residential food waste for composting in local community gardens. They see that:
We are officially THREE years in to working together on our mats virtually from all around the world and we aren't done yet! I have all new workout videos up on the site for you today that will put a little pep into your step. Many of you have contacted me who use my videos to let me know what you are working on, what injuries you have going on, what specific needs you have and I use that every month to make sure I am putting out content that helps each and every one of you - so THANK you for your feedback. If you have requests, please feel free to email me! I want you to get the most you possibly can from my library of classes. Last weekend, Adam and I had the pleasure of returning to Adam's alma mater Indiana University as he was honored in receiving the Young Alumni Award from the Singing Hoosier Alumni Council. We wanted to take this opportunity to give back to the community. This month, 20% of our proceeds will go toward the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University. The NMBCC was born out of an era of campus activism in the late 1960s, followed by African American student groups creating a document outlining their goals to increase Black faculty, admit more Black students, and introduce Black studies programs. By 1969, the document went before the Faculty Council and was approved. The late Herman Hudson became the first chair of Afro American Studies, which is now known as the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies. Hudson went on to create the NMBCC, which supports teaching, research, and service missions of the university, while also offering a positive and hospitable social environment for African American and African students, faculty, and staff. In January 2002, the NMBCC was officially dedicated in honor of the first African American man and woman to graduate from Indiana University: Marcellus Neal, who earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1895, and Frances Marshall, who received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919. The NMBCC has many programs including Freshman Pinning Ceremony, First Fridays, Midday House Parties, Student Development Opportunities, Black History Month and Black Congratulatory Ceremony. There are also student resources such as the NMBCC Library, Computer Lab, Counseling and Psychological Services, Academic Support Center, Graduate Mentoring Center, the African American Arts Institute, Black Center Film Center and Archive, Archives of African American Music and Culture as well as a list of Black Student Organizations and Bloomington Black-owned businesses. To learn more about their work on campus, please visit their website. This month is dedicated to Pilates lovers everywhere! Started by Benjamin Degenhardt, the purpose of March Mat-ness is to celebrate the creation of the Pilates method and the original mat order of exercises from Joseph Pilates's book, Return to Life. The beauty of Pilates On Demand is that you can take my classes anywhere, which means we have plenty of opportunity to take part in March Mat-ness this month. So where is the BEST place you've taken me yet?! Send me a picture from where you are celebrating March Mat-ness this year or feel free to post and tag @pilateswithsarahpowellshaff! I hope you take time to appreciate the beauty of the Pilates method and all that it has done for your body this month. And I hope you enjoy the new drop of classes! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to The White Helmets. When the bombs rain down, the White Helmets (also known as the Syria Civil Defense) rush in. In a place where public services no longer function, these humanitarian volunteers risk their lives to help anyone in need – regardless of their religion or politics. Known for their distinctive headwear, the rescue workers operate in the most dangerous place on earth and have saved more than 100,000 lives over the past five years. Former bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more professions besides, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life. Many have paid the ultimate price for their compassion – 252 have been killed while saving others. As frontline humanitarians, they are protected by international humanitarian law. Although they work exclusively in areas outside of government control, they have saved lives from all sides of the conflict, including that of government soldiers. Their inspiring work has earned them recognition at the highest international levels and they have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. The White Helmets’ motto is taken from the Quran: 'to save a life is to save all of humanity'. In a conflict where too many have chosen violence, the White Helmets wake up every day to save the lives others are trying so hard to take. The White Helmets is led by a democratically-elected Leadership Council that represents teams across the country, headed by Raed al Saleh who was formerly the Head of the White Helmets in Idlib, northern Syria. The work of the White Helmets has expanded in response to the needs of the communities they serve, now providing essential services to millions of people. Their work includes fixing electrical grids, maintaining sewage works, clearing rubble from roads, removing unexploded weapons, as well as community education and preparation for future attacks. The White Helmets have had female volunteers since their formation – now there are 221 women who are trained in medical care and light search and rescue work. Like their male counterparts, the female White Helmets started out doing search and rescue work. Seeing the needs of their communities, the female teams have now expanded their work to provide trauma counseling, community education to help children and families prepare for attacks and recover afterwards, and in areas where there are few medical services, they have opened women maternal health clinics. Their data and eyewitness testimonies, as well as photographic evidence, have been vital sources of information for international investigations into war crimes compiled by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and human rights groups. These crimes include the use of chemical weapons, the collective punishment of civilians through starvation sieges and the targeting of hospitals and medical facilities. The leading perpetrators of these crimes, the Syrian government and its ally Russia, are targeting the White Helmets on the ground and attempting to discredit their work online and in the media. The White Helmets dream of an end to their work pulling bodies from under the rubble and a time when their beloved Syria is at peace. When this day comes the White Helmets want to play their part in rebuilding a Syria where everyone's rights are realized. Already they are dealing with some of the most visible remnants of the war – unexploded weapons. They have trained teams who are clearing farmlands so that farmers can start growing the crops needed to feed communities. They are restoring schools so children can return to learn in safety and securing roads so that everyday journeys are no longer a matter of life and death. Thousands of people are confirmed to have died already in Syria in a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that has toppled houses in every city and village across northern Syria and southern Turkey. White Helmets volunteers saved almost 3,000 people from the destruction caused by the earthquake. Now, they start the next phase of their emergency response: recovery and rehabilitation. The White Helmets' response hasn’t stopped just because the cries for help from under the rubble have. Help them provide urgent support to Syria's earthquake survivors. To learn more about their work and to give directly to their organization, visit their website. I hope this post finds you starting 2023 with peace, joy and movement for your body, mind and soul. I have done a lot of reflecting since the start of this year on what I am doing everyday to my body - what I'm putting in it, how I'm moving it, how I'm taking care of it, what it's absorbing such as stress, anxiety, screen time, social media. There are certainly many, many opinions out there on what you should do and not do to be "healthy." And one thing I really wanted to share in my reflection - I am not an expert on anything. I am a permanent student. I have no room to tell you to eat this or don't eat that, get this many hours of sleep, don't do social media or use screens. And even though I have eleven years of teaching experience in Pilates, I don't want to be another voice in your head standing in your way and building fear or anxiety around movement. I want you to move and figure out your own bodies in a safe, judgment free zone. Because any movement is better than no movement. And it's there in that zone that you find joy in movement because you then have autonomy over your own body and what it can do. So this month, my focus in all my classes is "better health," which really means we move to feel good, not because we are trying to force our bodies to do something that we feel they should be able to do. Every month, I'm proud of the classes I build, but this month is extra special. All of the classes feel GOOD and will have you learning something new about your body. I hope it brings you joy and leaves you walking away feeling confident in the skin you're in. As of January 24, 1,230 people in the U.S. have died from gun violence so far in 2023. At least 69 of those deaths were in mass shootings. That's why this month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Sandy Hook Promise Foundation.
Sandy Hook Promise is a national nonprofit organization founded and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012. Based in Newtown, Connecticut, their intent is to honor all victims of gun violence by turning their tragedy into a moment of transformation. By empowering youth to “know the signs” and uniting all people who value the protection of children, we can take meaningful actions in schools, homes, and communities to prevent gun violence and stop the tragic loss of life. The mission of Sandy Hook Promise is to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. Through their proven, evidence-informed Know the Signs programs and sensible, bipartisan school and gun safety legislation, they teach young people and adults to recognize, intervene, and get help for individuals who may be socially isolated and/or at risk of hurting themselves or others. They have had 18 million participants, 23,000+ schools engaged, 150,000+ tips anonymously reported, 397 confirmed lives saved with crisis intervention, 102 acts of violence with a weapon prevented, 12 planned school shootings prevented and passed STOP school violence Act 2018. Their next steps include 1) expanding their proven Know the Signs programs to teach more youth and adults how to prevent violence, shootings, and other harmful acts with age-appropriate, antiracist curriculum that can be delivered online or in-person, 2) Sandy Hook Promise strives to ensure its work environment, programmatic work, and culture reflect the values of race, equity, diversity, and inclusion (REDI) and 3) through their sister organization, Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, writing and championing common sense policy to prevent gun violence and support mental wellness. To learn more and to make the promise, visit their website: https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/ Growing up, my family always celebrated holidays such as birthdays and Christmas, but my mom has always said, "Holidays are just another day." Now, she's usually saying this at times where we can't all be together to make us (well, me) feel less guilty. But she is right, holidays are just another day on our journey through life. And that means we don't need to buy into "New Year, New Me" or "New Year, New Body" rhetoric. You are perfect just the way you are. Today is another day to make small choices that can better our experience along this journey. And today is also a great day to go experience all that life has to offer. Life's too short to waste time with beating ourselves up over what we wish we looked like instead of living fully in the body we have. My new year's wish for you is that you love the body you are in, to use Pilates On Demand to keep you moving and to thank your body for all it can do. This last month, I was in shock to learn of the passing of Stephen "Twitch" Boss, a famous dancer who committed suicide at the age of 40. As a young Black male dancer, he shined in a way I have never seen before. His smile, his movement, his joy, his warmth and kindness completely captured me and my heart and made me feel as if I knew him. This really shines a light on how dangerous social media can be. We publish only what we want others to know - we hardly ever share the messiness or the darkness that can be consuming us. While it is important to check in on one another and make your community feel seen and heard, I am completely sure that he had a full community of loved ones doing just that. So work needs to be done beyond just being there for your community. It is important to amplify how valuable and necessary getting mental health care is for everyone. With that, this month, 20% of our proceeds will go to Black Men Heal. Black Men Heal was established in 2018. It was created as a solution to a broken inequitable mental health care system that does not center the needs of marginalized Black and brown communities. Their focus centers on the mental health needs of Black Men because of the lack of resources attending solely to this population. Their mission is to provide mental health treatment, education, and resources to men of color. Their goals are to eliminate the barriers that contribute to health disparities and inequities that exist for BIPOC communities to seek treatment, and to help increase the likelihood that Black men will self-initiate treatment for mental health struggles. Aside from the health disparities that marginalized communities face when seeking quality and unbiased treatment, additional barriers that prevented BIPOC men from seeking therapy 1. affordability/cost, 2. lack of cultural competency in treatment provider selection, and 3. the stigma. Black Men Heal was created and developed to eliminate each of these three barriers. Black Men Heal is a nonprofit that provides FREE mental health treatment-both individual and group therapy to men of color. Their offering to the community is a safe space that provides the opportunity to heal from intergenerational trauma and systemic racism. They pair the men with therapists of color who can attend to their unique cultural experiences. 75% of their men continue on with their therapists after the eight free sessions. To learn more about their fantastic work, please visit their website. Way to go! You have made it to the end of 2022 and you survived and, dare I say, thrived! I don't know about you, but seeing the world "back to normal" and trying to live as if this pandemic still doesn't exist around us has shown me my endurance isn't quite back to what it used to be. But we are all trying - we are showing up, doing all the things again and doing the best we can. And if you showed up to your mat even once this year, I am so proud of you! Self care can and should look different to everyone. What works for me will certainly be different than what works for you. But Pilates will always be self care for every body who shows up. With attention to detail, breath, flow, you will always feel as if you meditated and got a great workout in all at the same time. Your mind and body will feel clear, energized and replenished. And with that, the holiday season is always a great reminder that self care and Pilates are not about weight loss and being as skinny as you can be. They are both about nurturing the body you live in and giving it the love, movement, joy and breath that it deserves. And that is what we will always be about here at Pilates On Demand. And as always, the first day of the month means it's time to check out the On Demand library for a whole new set of videos! I so hope you enjoy! This month, 20% of our proceeds goes to Child Rights and You India.
In honor of our current trip to India, this month, it was important to us that we give back. Child Rights and you (CRY) envisions a happy, healthy and creative child whose rights are protected and honored in a society that is built on respect for dignity, justice and equity for all. Their mission: 1) take responsibility - to enable people to take responsibility for the situation of the deprived Indian child and so motivate them to seek resolution through individual and collective action thereby enabling children to realize their full potential, 2) mobilizing potential - to make people discover their potential for action and change, and 3) inspiring collective action - to enable peoples’ collectives and movements encompassing diverse segments, to pledge their particular strengths, working in partnership to secure, protect and honor the rights of India’s children. CRY was born of a dream to ensure happier childhoods for all children. In 1979, Rippan Kapur – an Indian Airlines purser – started CRY with 6 friends and just Rs. 50. Today, over 4 decades later, CRY works with 102 local NGOs across 19 states in India and has impacted the lives of over 3 million children. CRY works with project partners at the grassroots level to create sustainable change for India’s children. Their approach is modeled around bringing change at all levels. With our support, they address children’s critical needs by working with parents, teachers, Anganwadi workers, communities, district and state level governments as well as the children themselves. They focus on changing behaviors and practices at the grassroots level and influencing public policy at a systemic level – thereby creating an ecosystem where children are made the nation’s priority. They currently have 102 project partners across 19 states in India that work on various child rights issues. In 2021-2022, 908,479 children were impacted overall; 85% of children in CRY project areas, between the ages of 6-18 years, in school*In the 6-14 age group, our enrollment and retention rate are 15% better than the all India enrollment status, based on the ASER report; 86% children in CRY project areas, under the age of 5 years, prevented from malnutrition with only 17% children in CRY project areas underweight, as compared to 32% all India status as per NFHS 5; 99% of adolescent girls, in CRY project areas, between 11-18 years, protected from child marriage; 96% children, in CRY project areas, between the ages of 6-18 years, protected from child labor. CRY endeavors to multiply the impact of every rupee spent by getting infrastructure and services from the state that benefit the entire community in perpetuity. At CRY, they advocate for children’s rights at multiple levels and influence policy by engaging with key stakeholders in the government: 1) Free and Compulsory Education for India's Children - CRY participated in the ‘Voice Of India’ campaign, as a part of the National Alliance for the Fundamental Right to Education (NAFRE), to propose a constitutional amendment to the government for free and compulsory education to all children and as a result of the ‘Voice of India’ campaign, NAFRE contributed towards bringing in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009; 2) Member of Technical & Advisory Committees - CRY is recognized as a child rights expert and is a member of Niti Ayog’s sub-committee on ‘Child Rights and Child Protection’ and is also on the central advisory board on child and adolescent labor under the Ministry of Labour and Employment; 3) Providing Technical Support in Policy Making - CRY provided technical support to State governments in drafting the following policies: Chhattisgarh State Policy for Children, Manipur State Policy for Children, Jharkhand State Policy for Early Childhood Care and Education; 4) Sensitizing Policy Makers to the Needs of "Childescents" - CRY conducted an in-depth study, based on secondary data, on the status and needs of children between 15-18 years of age – the first of its kind that recognized those over the age of 14 as children as well. The resulting report, “Childescents In India: We Are Children too!” was presented to policy makers, academicians and practitioners. It was also carried in the G20 Summit Summary Briefing Booklet. The G20 summit is a global economic summit of leaders from countries across the world; 5) Enabling Capacity Building of Government Officials on Child Rights - CRY makes submissions to various relevant ministries and statutory bodies, which has contributed towards system strengthening and capacity building of government officials on child education including early childhood care and development, elementary education as well as juvenile justice, child labour, child trafficking, child marriage and child sexual abuse. To learn more about their incredible work, visit their website: https://www.cry.org/ |
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