Help Thousand Waves in our mission

As many of you may know I have been studying martial arts for over 20 years. However, for the past 8 years I have been training at Thousand Waves Martial Arts & Self-Defense. I have never encountered such a unique dojo (karate school) as I have in Thousand Waves. Thousand Waves has become my second home to me and over 400 other members.

Thousand Waves is a mission-driven not-for-profit in the city of Chicago that has been active in the community for over 33 years with a mission to foster fitness, healing, empowerment and peacemaking.

Our Spirit Challenge Fundraiser (which happens once a year) supports Thousand Waves' work in three critical areas:

The first area is the Scholarship program. This program provides financial assistance for children and adults who wouldn't otherwise be able to study karate or self-defense. This means that no student is turned away regardless of their financial constraints. I had to rely on this program for a short time and was eternally grateful for it.

The second area is Thousand Waves Self-Defense/Violence Prevention program. This program teaches an empowerment model of self-defense, which focuses on verbal and physical skills for avoiding danger along with effective techniques if one must use physical force to defend oneself. Again the funds raised from this years fund raiser will enable Thousand Waves teachers to take these courses to low-income communities and schools.

The last area which is dear to my heart is not only unique but speaks volumes to Sei Shihan Nancy and Jun Shihan Sarah. It shows that they feel that karate really has no limits. The program I speak of is called Adaptive Seido Karate (ASK) program. ASK is a program that Thousand Waves offers through the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which offers karate training and self-defense skills to disabled individuals. Most of the students have varying degrees of CP (Cerebral Palsy) so there are some who are in wheel chairs and others who are very mobile. I am one of many teachers who volunteer every Sunday in teaching these amazing karateka (one who practices karate).

I sincerely hope you will consider making a donation to Thousand Waves so that we can reach our goal of $75,000. My fundraising link is as follows https://thousandwaves.networkforgood.com/projects/51975-shelby-donahue . Your gift will help me reach (and hopefully surpass) my $1,000 goal. Together with the gifts of others, you will give hundreds of individuals access to life-transforming skills.