February 12, 2005

Our Tsunami Relief  Fundraiser/ Chinese New Year Celebration was a great success!

It started with students and their families helping to clean the studio prior to the event. The Vacuum King may not have the mythical powers of the Monkey King, but he did discover that Shaolin techniques can be adapted to modern technology to create new weapons in the ongoing battle against evil (or at least dirt).

 

Many thanks to Terri Hogue of  Mountain Yoga Studio for starting off the
morning with a free introductory Yoga class.

 

Next, our own Shifu Sean Marshall provided a free introductory Kung Fu class

 

There was a steady stream of people coming in for the great yard sale bargains
and bake sale items in addition to the classes and demonstrations.

 

The Greer kids provided a Lion Dance demonstration and managed to go up
and down between all of the yard sale tables without knocking over anything!

 

At noon, we had our kick-a-thon. We had a room full of participants who did
200 kicks of all types. Shifu Marshall had a surprise for the kickers - after the
200 kicks were completed, he told them there was one more "bonus" kick that
had to be performed and it had to be a board break!

 

We had great demonstrations by several martial arts schools. We really
appreciate the effort they took to come out and support this fundraiser!

 

Sifu Scott Dobbins brought students from the Mid-Atlantic Chinese Martial Arts Center

 

Sifu Ramon J. Martinez brought students from the Heaven Mountain Gongfu & Taiji school

 

Sifu Shawn Smith with students from her Silk Dragon Chinese Martial Arts school

 

Students from Goh's Kung Fu & Tai Chi

 

Students from the Jing Ying Institute self-defense classes.

 

Many thanks to Debi Jasen who had the idea of organizing an indoor yard sale
for the Tsunami Relief Fundraiser and who did so much work soliciting donations
and volunteers for the yard sale and bake sale portion of our fundraiser.
She is shown with her husband to the left and Nancy and Billy Greer on the right.

 

Also, many thanks to the Office Depot in Severna Park for loaning us tables on short notice,
to Deb at The Big Bean coffee shop for supplying coffee for the event, and to Isaac at
The Good Life health food store for supplying healthy beverages for the kick-a-thon participants.

Office Depot - 569 Ritchie Hwy, Store# 2106, Severna Park, MD 21146.  410-544-0615

The Big Bean - 558 Baltimore & Annapolis Blvd, Severna Park, Maryland 21146.  410-384-7744

Good Life Natural Foods - 570 Benfield Village Shopping Center, Severna Park, MD 21146.  410-647-6602.

We raised over $2,000 to support the Tsunami Relief efforts of  Mercy Corps and donated
hundreds of dollars worth of items to Goodwill. The fundraiser was such a success that we've
decided to make it an annual event. We've realized that we shouldn't have to wait for a disaster
of this scope to be motivated to benefit others. There are many local charities that have ongoing
needs that we can help meet. We hope all of our supporters will be back next year to help us
benefit another charity!