Marchell Giorgi Scarano, his story of well-being, incredible resilience and inspiration

Photo of Dave Warner Marchell in his studio after conducting his morning yoga class.

By Denise Louise Gregorka

Anyone who has lived in Little Falls for a short time has probably crossed paths with or heard of Marchell Scarano, owner of Yoga and Wellness. She has been a fixture in the community as a wellness coach for decades and has dedicated her life to keeping people healthy.

Little did she know that in a life-changing moment, everything she had taught would become a necessary tool in a huge personal obstacle.

Marchell was born and raised in Little Falls. For most of his childhood, he lived on the South Side and attended Jefferson St. School. She grew up with dance lessons, including ballet, jazz and tap.

She went to college for Probation Parole for Juveniles to follow the family tradition of law enforcement. Unfortunately, in the 1970s, women weren’t accepted in those kinds of positions and she was unable to find work in that field.

The first years of operation

She recalls, My first workout in exercise came from Jack LaLanne. During my college years, I was able to train with him during a summer program.

After college, as she could not pursue her chosen profession, she took a part-time job managing a women’s gymnasium in Herkimer, which was the only one in the area. She remained in that position for a year and she was eventually recruited by the owners of a new gym in Little Falls.

Around 1975, after running that gym, Marchell says, I decided I wanted to do a women’s exercise class because there was no such thing. Women came to the gym, but they needed more than rollers and belts and old-fashioned machines. She approached Mr. Truman, the director of the YMCA in Little Falls, and he agreed to give her a small room in Ys basement. It was a modest start.

The following year, Tony Deluca became the new director of the YMCA and helped make its room cozier. After a couple of years, the class had outgrown them and they moved to Ys Gym for an hour a week.

Marchell recalls: When we got into the ’80s, we were in the gym two nights and those classes were about eighty or ninety people. The gym was packed as it was popular. Jane Fonda had come in and was more acceptable. We had it all: leg warmers, headbands, everything.

She taught separate classes, including high impact, low impact, flexibility, and weights.

1987, Marchell leads his class in the First Canal Days Parade in Little Falls

As time went on, Marchell tried to find gyms in different big cities as she traveled with her husband for his job. She wanted to see what they were doing.

In those years there was no training to learn how to teach Pound. There wasn’t that kind of thing, especially for women. So you had to watch. I brought back the step aerobics classes. My father made the steps. At the height of my time there, I had two classes in four evenings and one on Saturday morning.

Women appreciated having somewhere to go and learn how to be healthy. Marchell says, I always wanted it to be something I enjoyed and I wanted them to enjoy. I wanted them to feel good about what they were doing and to be healthy and strong in a safe atmosphere. I have never stopped learning. There is always something else to learn.

He also taught weight training at Herkimer College.

Yoga

As Marchell approached her 40th birthday, she began to feel that the excessive hours of teaching were taking a toll on her body.

I was teaching a lot and doing a lot. It was more than the average person should actually make, so I started feeling some of the side effects. It was too much.

He started watching yoga practices. Since there were no yoga classes in the area, she went looking in Albany and Syracuse to see what was out there and what she could learn. There was no online learning, no YouTube.

She started learning yoga and eventually slowly introduced stretches and poses to her classes. In 1996 she got certified and started yoga classes.

I learned the different styles, but I still go back to Hatha Yoga which is yin and yang, balance, and it was the beginning of all other yoga styles. I am a Hatha Yoga teacher with aromas of many other teachings.

She moved from teaching on Furnace St. to the basement of the Co-Op and has also taken classes at Herkimer College. She has taught yoga throughout the area, including at YMCAs in various surrounding cities. During all those years of teaching, she had a full-time job.

Marchell decided that he wanted to own his own business, which he could run on his own schedule. He has his sights set on his current location at 27 West Main St. in Little Falls, where he has most of his classes, but he jumps at the opportunity to teach outdoors in Rotary Park or on the roof of Rock’s building city.

Life interrupted

His resume is truly impressive, and the story could end here, but there’s so much more to tell you.

As Marchell was driving on a Sunday morning in January of 2021, a pickup truck drove into her lane and hit her on the head.

In his words, I squeezed and walked back to my seat. When I opened my eyes, all the airbags exploded. She completely spun my car and I ended up in the opposite direction. I knew part of the car wasn’t there. I thought I wanted to get out, but I couldn’t get out. I was broken. Those first few seconds, I didn’t know, but the pain rushed in.

God bless those two Little Falls firefighters. They were perfect that day. They asked me the right questions and listened to me. I was ordering them to hold this, hold that as they moved me. They were compassionate and kind. God was with me that morning, and I know it, he said she.

I was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital and was in great pain. I actually remembered to use my yoga breathing to relax because if you can relax, the pain would be less. Part of everything we do, how we take care of ourselves, our nutrition, yoga, whatever it is, affects our recovery time when things happen. Before long I was sent to Upstate Medical in Syracuse and found myself in an intensive care unit.

My right knee had hit the console and chipped my femur and tibia. They had two leg surgeries, one of which lasted 10 hours. Part of my tibia was pulverized so they had to rebuild that bone. My right leg has metal rods that will stay with me forever. There are rods and cables and screws, Marchell said.

The radius and ulna on my left wrist went into my palm and both came off so my hand was basically broken under the skin. They did two different surgeries on his arm resulting in two plates on the bones. They did a phenomenal job of putting my arm back together.

I have been in the hospital for five weeks and no one has been able to come because of the Covid. When I was there, one of the therapists had me do chair yoga, sitting in the wheelchair. He said: Teach me what I can do with other people. This made me think that I can do it.

I came home in a wheelchair. It took a couple of months before I could start using a walker. Kress’s PT was very helpful. I started crocheting and washing dishes to get my hand to work. Then I went to knitting, which was also good therapy.

The leg took a long time to recover. After a while, I was using the walker and had to make a decision whether to reopen my practice. My family and friends have encouraged me to come back.

The first time I came back, I came in with a walker and said: either they will come or they won’t. I had a chair in the corner. They started coming back and I taught. This encouraged me to work more in therapy. I switched from walker to cane and was able to stand and teach.

And here we are. I teach eight classes a week and am looking to get back to teaching college as well. I look forward to being able to do more. I’ll do this for as long as I can until people stop coming, and then I’ll be all by myself doing it myself. I learned to be a better yoga teacher. I’ve learned to have more compassion for people who are hurt. I love what I do, I love people.

Marchell is an inspiration to anyone who wants to be fit or can overcome any kind of physical challenge.

If you want to know more about Yoga and Wellness, you can find her at https://www.facebook.com/yogawellnessforall, or you can contact her at marchellray@hotmail.com (315) 868-1907.

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Denise Gregorica is a longtime resident of Little Falls who loves the people and history of the town.

She is married to Little Falls native Craig, a retired photographer and former entrepreneur.

Denise has worked as a costume designer for Broadway and off-Broadway theater for more than 18 years and has also been an antiques/collectibles dealer for over 25 years.

She is not a professional writer but is compelled to listen and share the background story engaging the residents of Little Falls.

If you’d like to contact Denise with a story idea, you can email her at gork4444@gmail.com.