As most of you know, Thousand Waves is a place which has become incredibly important in my life over the past four years. When I moved to Chicago, I was looking to continue my Tae Kwon Do training. But I learned about and fell in love with a different art – Seido karate – and Thousand Waves has been so welcoming and encouraging ever since my first Karate class as a White Belt. Since then, I've earned the rank of Brown Belt (getting closer to Black Belt!) and have been serving the organization as a member of the Board of Directors and frequent volunteer.

What you may not know is that Thousand Waves is much more than a Karate school. Thousand Waves is a non-for-profit dedicated to the fostering of "fitness, healing, empowerment and peacemaking by promoting healthy minds and bodies through violence prevention, self-defense and traditional martial arts programs for adults and children of all ages." What really makes Thousand Waves special is its mission to provide critical self-defense and violence prevention programs to underserved individuals and communities at low or no cost.

Spirit Challenge is our annual spring fundraising event. It offers Thousand Waves members (like me) the opportunity to take on both physical and "fiscal" challenges in support of Thousand Waves. We sign on for athletic challenges and set a fundraising goal for ourselves. We train for the events we will be entering and solicit pledges from our dear family, friends and colleagues. 

Would you please help me reach my goal?