Community Book Roundup

I'm happy to post this project from one of my Martial Arts Leadership Students - Jocelyn Hardy
~Mr. Engels

Successful Community Book Round-Up
As a Marital Arts Student at the Leadership Academy in Woodruff, Wisconsin, under the leadership of Mr. Gary Engles, I hosted a book drive for area children. Being the Reading Specialist at the Arbor-Vitae Woodruff Elementary School, I am on a continuous quest to provide the best reading services possible to our children.


One of the most painful notions that cross my desk everyday is the fact that our area children have absolutely no literature in the homes. As I sat back and pondered this unbelievable situation I thought…. How can I hold these high expectations for nightly reading when our children have no access to books? My mind began to race as I pictured all of the books in my own house…thinking now what. How can I be a positive avenue for change in our community? Then I had an idea…I would hold a book drive at our elementary school. I emailed teachers and let them know that during the week of December 3rd, students would be asked to bring in a gently used children’s book.

My thinking was that if every student brought in 1 book, with the thinking of “together we can make a difference” that I would have 567 books to share with area Head start programs, childcare programs, hospitals, and other area agencies servicing families who may not have access to books. I send home a note to remind parents, put an announcement on the morning and afternoon notices to students, and placed a blurb in our parent news. As the week of the drive progressed, I was disappointed that we may not reach my goal of 567 books, however, when Friday rolled around, my classroom was overflowing with books, over 1,600 to be exact.

I was so overwhelmed!

All of the students, staff, and parents at AV-W School unbelievably stepped up to the challenge. One Kindergartener’s comment really summed up the purpose of my project,

“Ms. Hardy, I brought in my favorite book to donate. I know that if it was my favorite book, it’ll now be someone else’s.”

I still am receiving books today, especially with spring-cleaning☺…there is another book round up in the making…again for the weeks before Christmas. The response of the local agencies and programs was overwhelming. There were tears of joy and bewilderment…I received thank you cards from tiny-tots to teenagers, from parents, teachers, and even from a WI state representative, noting how wonderful the project was. The local newspaper had two different articles on the book drive, and the hope for next year, is that we will exceed our goal and be able to distribute even more books to area children. Happy Reading!

If you’d like information about hosting your own book drive, please email me at jhardy@avw.k12.wi.us and I would be more the happy to help you get started!

Raising Money For Endangered Animals

A few months ago I put together a kick-a-thon to raise money for endangered animals. The students at Leadership Academy joined in my efforts and we raised $625 for the World Wild Life Foundation. Each student who participated in the kick-a-thon raised enough money to symbolically adopt an endangered animal. For their efforts they were send a packet of information about their animal. Some of the students even raised enough money to receive a pack of information and a stuffed animal that resembled the animal that they adopted. All together we adopted 19 animals.

This project was really amazing because we not only donated money to a foundation who is doing positive things in our world, but also we raised awareness of how important it is to help the endangered animals of our world. The students really came together on this project and I'm very proud of them for stepping up and doing something amazing for the endangered animals.


~Gary and Nikki Engels

www.LeadershipProjects.com
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Using Less Plastic Bags

As a method of environmental self defense and mindful shopping, over the last year, we have stopped taking plastic bags when we go grocery shopping. We don't even take paper bags. We do have 3-4 cloth bags that we try and bring with us whenever possible.

I am AMAZED at peoples response EVERY TIME we don't take a bag. We try and shop light, just for the things we need for the day (or two days) so most cases we will just carry things out in our arms.

Whenever we do this, every bagger and every cashier asks us 3-4 times, "are you sure you don't want a bag" "How are you going to carry that" or my favorite "Your pizza is going to thaw on you without a bag" WHAT?! Someone actually told me that with sincere concern. They are simply shocked that we are not taking a bag.

We are saddened that people don't take a more conscious effort toward something as simple as using less plastic bags at the grocery store. Many baggers (I used to be a bagger as a teenager at this particular grocery store) will even double bag your groceries for certain items. That's how we were taught to do it so the customer didn't leave and have a broken bag.

NOTE: Though plastic bags have only been around for 50 years or so, scientists estimate that it takes about 500 years for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill. That's 5-6 life times!

It's also important to note that plastic bags can be recycled and I'm happy to say that I see plastic bag recycling boxes all over now. I also know that many people will use their plastic bags more than once for additional tasks around the home.

WHAT WE DID ABOUT THIS ISSUE: EARTH DAY April 22nd 2008
I don't want to come on this journal just whining about a problem, as martial arts leaders we should have some sort of proposed solutions right?

The week leading up to Earth Day this year we went to the local grocery store and asked for 300 paper bags. Our students decorated (colored) the bags with messages and pictures that had to do with Earth Day Awareness. Those bags were distributed to everyone that went shopping that day.

We were promoting that Paper is a much more environmentally friendly way to shop if you must take a bag and Cloth Bags are best. We also talked to the manager of the grocery store who ordered more cloth bags and they have since sold many more cloth grocery bags in their store. Also, they now give a $.05 discount on your groceries for every cloth bag that you bring in that day.

I like to think that we had something to with this although I feel that they may have been moving toward this already anyway. In either case, we took action on this issue. The students at our school learned a powerful leadership lesson in educating the community about plastic bags, they got to participate in an activity that involved our martial arts community, we got exposure for our martial arts school, and everyone felt great when we delivered those bags. (Not to mention the smiles that were brought out as a result of the children's decorations on the bags...Priceless)

~ Gary Engels

www.LeadershipProjects.com
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Martial Artists Kick Cans for Environmental Self Defense Project

My project started out with one simple idea that came from a poster I saw. This poster was hanging up in the Minocqua bowling alley and talked about recycling cans. This really caught my eye and I started to do some research on the idea. One idea turned into many and what I came up with was to collect and recycle aluminum cans, old cell phones, and old ink cartridges.

To encourage students to participate we developed a little competition. I divided the students up into two teams. Each team was decided by the students' ages...that way both teams had an even number of adults, five year olds and so forth. The incentive for bringing in their cell phones, ink cartridges, and cans was a free pizza party for the team who brought in the most stuff. Also, we gave out a $25 gift certificate for the pro shop to the person who brought in the most stuff.

At first people didn't bring in a whole lot of stuff, but with in the second week the phones, cartridges and cans started to roll in! I had everyone give me their items directly. I would count what they had and then put their points up on the Team poster. A cell phone was worth one point, a ink cartridges was worth one point, and 100 cans was worth one point.

At the end of the project I added everything up. I wanted to really make a point of showing the students and the community what a group of people could do in only one month's time when they take action.

Here are the final totals..............

83 Cell phones, 136 Ink Cartridges, and 11,265 aluminum cans!

One cell phone pollutes 132,000 liters of water. When you do the math, 83 Cell phones recycled saved 2,894,269 gallons of water from being polluted!!!! A little bit of action from a group of people goes a long way!

Last weekend we had a recycling party. Students from the Academy came out to help us take the pop tops off the cans. The pop tops went to another project, developed by Alex Olewinski. He is donating pop tops to the Ronald McDonald's Houses that helps terminally ill children. Please check out Alex's post on his project. www.leadershipprojects.

At the recycling party we dumped all 11,265 cans onto the parking lot. We had teams set up and had each person at a station. The cans were piled on one side and a few people where in charge of taking the cans and giving them to their team mates in the middle. These people used pliers and took off the pop tops and then threw them into another pile. This pile was the finished cans...ready for recycling. We got through the cans in about 2 hours and we had about 30 people helping. (kids and adults)


We also called the news and they came out to do a story about the success we had. We will also be putting in a press release in the paper this week.

If you would like to do the same project or would like some information on it, please contact me for more information. www.leadershipprojects.com

There are links below for companies who take cell phones and ink cartridges.

www.phoneraiser.com
www.recycleplace.com

~ Nikki Engels
www.LeadershipProjects.com
www.LeadershipProjects.Blogspot.com


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Karate School Brings Books and Funds to Boston Schools and Literacy Programs

Boston (Allston) MA — May 16, 2008. Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts recently collected over $1,400 in donations and nearly 1,000 books to benefit the Roger Clap School in Dorchester and the Maurice Tobin School in Roxbury. A 100-book donation was also presented to Everybody Wins, a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit proven to build the skills and love of reading among low-income elementary students.

The book and donation drive was led by karate students Wendy Mailot and Melissa Even, who conceived of and completed the project as part of their test for purple belt. The book donations include award-winning math curriculum based texts, and books from the popular Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, Goosebumps, and American Girls series. Delivery was made to the Clap School on April 15; the Tobin School donation drop of will be held on Monday, May 19.

"Unfortunately, too many kids do not have home environments that are conducive to reading, and too many schools do not have the budgets to adequately fill their libraries with books that interest kids," Mailot says. "The books and money we collect will make a huge difference to these schools and to Everybody Wins, as well as to all of the kids."

More information about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts can be found online at http://www.karateinboston.com/. Sensei Jason Gould, Chief Instructor, can be reached at (617) 230-1973.

Karate Students Practice Environmental Self Defense in Namesake Park

Boston (Allston) MA — May 1, 2008. During Earth Day week and in conjunction with the citywide "Boston Shines" cleanup initiative, the students of Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts recently helped to remove trash and debris along the banks of the Muddy River in the Fens Area behind the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Fens area is part of the "Emerald Necklace," an interconnected system of parks and waterways that winds its way through the city of Boston. Emerald Necklace Martial Arts is named after this sprawling urban green space. About 20 students from the karate school participated in the cleanup, along with several other community groups.

"If we don't take care of our environment, our environment will take care of us," says Sensei Jason Gould, Chief Instructor at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts. "So when you think about it, having our members participate in the cleanup is really a lesson in self-defense."

"Besides," he adds, "our dojo (karate school) is named after this park system. How could we not come out and help take care of it?"

The students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts regularly participate in community service activities as part of their Black Belt training. Past activities include a fundraiser for Allston's West End House Boys and Girls Club, a food drive for the Greater Boston Food Bank, and building housing in Dorchester with Habitat for Humanity.

More information about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts can be found online at www.karateinboston.com. Sensei Jason Gould can be reached at (617) 230-1973.

Karate Students Try to Knock Out Cancer

For More Information, contact:

Sensei Jason Gould
Chief Instructor
Emerald Necklace Martial Arts
129 Braintree Street, Suite 213, Allston MA 02134
http://www.karateinboston.com/
(617) 230-1973

Karate Students Try to Knock Out Cancer

Boston (Allston) MA — January 10, 2008. Hoping to help others and redefine the meaning of "self-defense," the members of Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts are joining the fight to beat cancer.

As part of his Purple Belt test, karate student Jeffery Arbeit is organizing a blood platelet donation drive for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-farber.org). In addition to organizing the drive, Arbeit will also be running the Boston Marathon later this spring to raise money for Cancer research.

"My goal is to raise awareness," Arbeit says, "and perhaps to inspire others to do things that they might really want to do, but might be afraid to do. If others push themselves past obstacles to help someone else, I would be really happy."

Arbeit, who admits to being wary of needles, was the first one in the karate school to donate platelets.

"I do not like needles, and before I donated platelets last week I had never even given blood." Arbeit says. "We often discuss embracing fears in the dojo (karate school), and I wanted to connect this idea to my service project. So I embraced and perhaps overcame a fear when I gave platelets."

According to Sensei Jason Gould, the dojo Chief Instructor, the students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts are required to conceive of, plan, and lead a community service project as part of their Black Belt training.

"Earning a Black Belt at our school requires more than a good side kick," Gould says, "so these projects are designed to challenge each student to demonstrate their character, leadership ability, and their commitment to the community. I'm constantly impressed by the innovation and creativity the students display in choosing and running their projects. It's really amazing to see the variety of things they come up with."

Anyone wishing to contribute to the dojo's blood platelet drive is invited to contact Sensei Gould at (617) 230-1973. More information about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts can be found online at http://www.karateinboston.com/.

Martial Artists Participate in National Night Out

BOSTON, MA --
Sensei Jason Gould, Emerald Necklace Martial Arts

A group of karate students from Allston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts will take the night off from training on August 7 to assist with the annual community barbecue in Ringer Park Playground. The barbecue, organized by the Ringer Park Crime Watch and sponsored by a number of local businesses and community groups, is held each year as part of the citywide celebration of "National Night Out." The karate students will help to set up tables, serve food and drinks, and assist with tear-down and cleanup after the event.

Sensei Jason Gould, Chief Instructor at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts, is one of the founding members of the Ringer Park Crime Watch. "Participating in National Night Out is a great example of what our dojo (karate school) is really about," Gould says. "In our karate training, we talk a lot about the importance of respect, gratitude, and serving others. This event is a wonderful opportunity to practice those very things."

The students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts have been participating in community service activities as part of their Black Belt training since 2003. The Ringer Park Crime Watch was selected as one of the top ten crime watch groups in the city in 2004.

Dojo's Focus Beyond Just the Physical

Todd R. Brown
SAN BRUNO, CA
CLAD IN protective head gear and body pads, two teenage students tap boxing gloves and square off at Dojo USA World Training Center. Bouncing back and forth, the combatants eye each other with laser intensity, quivering with tension as they prepare to unleash fists and feet of fury. "Roundhouse over here," instructor Will Vatcher barks out as one student scores a point with a side kick to the other's chest. In a moment, his sparring partner turns the tables, landing a kick on his opponent's abdomen. "Roundhouse over here," 21-year-old Vatcher says with a dramatic drawl as the students on the sidelines "ooh" with the abrupt shift in tide of the battle.
It's all over in less than two minutes, yet the dramatic karate skills the students honed on a recent afternoon are only part of the education at this San Bruno dojo, or martial arts school.
Although the classroom provides a place to practice katas -- routines that compile various fighting moves -- the extra- curricular aspect of the training focuses on character enrichment, an innovative approach to themartial arts begun in recent years in California. "Your greatest strength isn't physical. It's the spirit, it's the will inside," said Peter Johnson, the energetic head instructor, or sensei, at Dojo USA. "Here we kind of make it a tangible art, teaching life skills."
To that end, students must complete a thousand acts of kindness before earning their black belts, as well as take part in "empathy training" where they spend a day blind, mute or in a wheelchair.
Nineteen-year-old brown belt Umit Singh, an eight-year student at the San Bruno dojo, tried a day without speaking and wound up enjoying some unexpected kindness himself.
"There were a lot of random people who came up and translated words for me," he said. "A lot more people are actually nicer than they seem." The Millbrae resident, who is studying speech pathology at Foothill College in Los Altos, said the karate techniques he has learned were as much about self-enlightenment as self-defense.

"It's more about learning to respect other people and learning your limitations, how far you can push yourself," said Singh, whose parents are from Fiji. "Before, I was shy; I've learned it's about putting yourself out there. Now I talk to more people I don't know."
Thirteen-year-old Natalia De Vera, a brown belt who started with Dojo USA in preschool, said her latest act of kindness was helping a friend with her homework. De Vera listed the good work in a notebook she will turn in upon earning her black belt, a roughly three-year journey.
"You have to think, to focus a lot. You have to do things you haven't done before," she said of her required spiritual development. "You have to do some teaching. You get to make up your own kata." Her mother, 37-year-old Patricia De Vera, said learning karate has boosted her daughter's self-esteem. "She's a very refined little girl. This has made her more outspoken," Patricia De Vera said. "With the acts of kindness -- you know how kids are at that age, 'another homework to do.' But they realize all the good things they do on a daily basis."

Last weekend, Johnson gathered several adult students to hand out food at a Tenderloin homeless shelter. Earlier this month, the 35- year-old San Bruno native helped restore a circa-1810 house in Greensboro, Ala., in one of the poorest parts of the country. Johnson and about 10 others went to the hospital after the roof they were working on caved in, but they walked away with minor injuries. Johnson broke his foot and is on crutches (He asked his students, "Can you guys kick really hard because I can't right now?")

The charitable project was part of the Ultimate Black Belt Test, a 12-month program begun by a Placerville karate teacher three years ago that now has about a hundred participants worldwide, including Johnson and instructors in San Rafael and Sonoma.
"That really changed my idea about martial arts," Johnson said of the initiative. "Prior to that, I thought it was kicking and punching. It goes beyond that. I really learned it's a lot of little things added together to create great progress." For instance, the Redwood City resident said he's done more than 100,000 push-ups in a year by doing 300 quick-fire calisthenics a day.
"You would be surprised what you can accomplish," Johnson said. "Some people look to make the gigantic change. I don't want to hit it big. I want to hit it small, day after day. Eventually that all adds up."
Forty-eight-year-old Tom Callos, who designed the UBBT program and runs The Dojo workshop in Placerville, east of Sacramento, said Johnson has the idea down cold.
"His attitude, his effervescence, his energy, it's the exception rather than the rule," Callos said. "We're all capable of a lot more. I love that Lao Tzu quote, 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.'" Johnson's dojo studio has about 265 students. Some have gone on to become instructors there, including Vatcher, who started teaching six years ago as a teenage brown belt, one notch below a black belt.

"I have no idea what kind of person I'd be if it wasn't for this school," he said. "There are lots that don't do empathy training." In May, the San Bruno resident is moving to Tokyo for six months to study Shotokan karate, the forefather of Dojo USA's Shorin Ryu style; both developed in Okinawa. Vatcher said the schools there emphasize the physical side of karate, not the UBBT's approach. "Hopefully that's one of the things I can bring them," he said, noting that his greatest empathy challenge was spending a day mute. "You learn how much is said that doesn't need to be," Vatcher said, clad in a white gi, the standard karate uniform. "I like to talk, definitely. I'm a social guy. You've got one mouth and two ears; you should use those twice as much.
"The next day, it was a quiet one for me. I would tell people, 'Sorry I'm not talking much, I've been listening.' That was about a year ago -- still rippling through me."

On the way out of Dojo USA, another quote by philosopher Lao Tzu hangs in a frame on the wall: "He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."

Karate Punchers Push Paper for Peace

Boston (Allston) MA — Accustomed to throwing punches and kicks during their classes, the karate students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts in Boston's Allston neighborhood are trying something completely different: they're working on sending out a message of peace. As part of a dojo (karate school) community service project led by Brown Belt candidate Greg Mudarri, the students are attempting to fold 1,000 origami paper cranes in time to send them to Hiroshima to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on that city, which is coming up on August 6.

To successfully pass their test for Brown Belt, the students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts are required to conceive of, plan, and lead a community service project of their own choosing to demonstrate their character, leadership ability, and their commitment to community.

"Greg's project is incredibly ambitious," says Sensei Jason Gould, chief instructor at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts. "In this day and age, it's also incredibly important. Greg's efforts and leadership speak volumes about the nonviolent philosophy behind our martial arts training, and I'm very proud of him."

To help him reach the goal of 1,000 folded paper cranes, Mudarri has enlisted the aid of local school children. Over the past two months, he has been teaching crane folding in a number of elementary schools in Boston and in his hometown of North Andover. Part of Mudarri's origami lesson includes relating the story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who contracted leukemia from the Hiroshima bombing radiation. Sadako did not survive her illness, but she folded over 1,000 paper cranes in hopes that her illness would be cured. And today, the paper crane is known around the world as a symbol of peace. To date, Mudarri has collected several hundred cranes for the project.

"To try to do a movement for world peace is so hard, but it's similar to recycling," Mudarri says. "Everyone can do their part to make a difference."

Anyone wishing to contribute to the dojo's peace project is invited to contact Sensei Jason Gould at (617) 230-1973.