From Me to My Friends…
On April 7, 2011, I will join between 50 and 100 martial arts master teachers and their students in the small southern town of Greensboro, Alabama. We will put on our work boots and gloves, and begin building a home for an elderly woman in need.
I am going to Greensboro because Martin Luther King traveled through there just weeks before his death. I am going there because teacher-architect Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee co-founded the famous Rural Studio in nearby Newbern. I am going there because of the classic book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men; because James Agee wrote about the people of Hale County and because Walker Evans carried his camera down Greensboro’s Main Street.
My friends and I are going there because community activist Pam Dorr lives there and heads The Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO).
We are a group of karate, kung fu, aikido, taekwondo, tang soo do and jiu-jitsu teachers from New Jersey, Hawaii, California, South Carolina, Maine and many other states, as well as martial artists from Canada.
We come to Alabama to learn about a kind of martial arts mastery that project founder Tom Callos says is more relevant to teaching self-defense in today’s world that any kick, block or punch.
“Mastery, genuine mastery, is not found in the physical practice of the martial arts,” states Callos, a 6th degree black belt,
“It is found in the way the practitioner uses, in the world, what he or she practices on the mat. To be a Master is to transcend the boundaries and borders of your subject and weave your work into the fabric of your community. This is what Mockbee did, what we experience when we read Agee, when we see the faces and places Evans captured in his photography, and what we hear when we listen to Reverend King today, 43 years after his death. These black belts are here to practice a kind of martial arts that transcends the dojo.”
For the last 7 years, Callos and his team, participants in The Ultimate Black Belt Test, have raised the funds for building materials, then provided the labor to build a number of projects in Greensboro.
Two years ago I traveled to Greensboro along with some students from Samurai Karate studio, Kristie Davenport and the Schwarz family, and we helped restore a Rosenwald School, which was designated an historic landmark. In addition, we built a house for a blind man whose trailer was crumbling apart, we helped finish building a brand new animal shelter for Hale County, we participated in martial arts demonstrations in the local schools and we helped establish a new store to help fund the HERO project year round. In between our volunteer efforts, we presented or attended workshops on anger managment, Diabetes awareness and self defense against assault.
Rosenwald School House
“People always ask me what does architecture, photography, building houses, and Martin Luther King have to do with the martial arts,” says Callos. “I tell them, everything. As a Master Teacher my life is my dojo --and everything I do is a reflection on what I have learned and who I am as a person. This is the ultimate self-defense.”
This year, we will be building a new home for Ms. Georgia along with several demonstrations, other repairs and projects.
Like any good project, we need to fund this house build to the tune of approximately $25,000. All of the donations raised, go to the project and materials. The rest of the work is done by volunteers, so you can be sure your money is being spent very wisely.
I need your help!
Part of my UBBT test is to put my "crowdfunding" skills to good use. We have until April 7 to raise this money and if I could get just 200 friends to donate $10.00 each, we could hit our goal of $2,000 for our contribution.
Please call me at 804-462-9425 if you would like to donate, or drop by my school. Checks can be made out to HERO and mailed to me at 2000 Clemson Road, Suite #9, Columbia, SC 29229.
Thank you for your support!
Your friend,
Sensei Chris Feldt
803-463-9425
samuraikarate@bellsouth.net
Sensei Chris Feldt
Samurai Karate Studio
Columbia, SC 29229
803-462-9425
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