By Charly SHELTON

Master’s Taekwondo Club, located in the Montrose Shopping Park, celebrated its first year in Montrose by raising funds for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. On Oct. 19, MTC hosted friends and families of its taekwondo students to join in a “break-a-thon.”

“As martial artists,” said Master Ahn, head instructor for MTC, “we understand that a lot of people need help and we try to teach that to our children. They are not just learning how to kick and punch, they’re being educated so they understand to do the right things. Through that [we] hope that they won’t use the martial art in any wrong way.”

At the break-a-thon, guests purchased boards for $5, then broke them. The boards were donated by the school so for every board broken, $5 was donated to Children’s Hospital. All total, at the end of the three-hour event, $525 was raised to donate to the hospital and over 100 boards were broken.

“They had fun writing some of their bad habits and when you break [the board] hopefully they see they can be strong and not have the same bad habit,” said Master Ahn. “So it was just a fun day for a lot of kids. Some just broke three or four, but you know some probably broke 20 boards. They got really involved. A lot of people were here, a lot of parents were supportive. It was our first year, so we didn’t get the turnout that we expected but we would like to do something like this every year to help the community.”

MTC is looking to the future to host more events.

“We’re always trying to come up with plans to encourage more children to learn and educate and help out each other. We would love to get involved in the community,” said Master Ahn.

  Charly Shelton