Floor Plan 2024
Master Andrew Bloch is a Taekwondo and yoga teacher who, with Karen Larsen, used to own Warrior's Way, which is what our school was before I took over in 2016 and it became Metrowest Kung Fu. We have remained very friendly with Master Bloch and Karen over the years, and enjoyed the classes they have continued teaching at the school.
Master Bloch notified us Thursday April 18th that a friend of his was selling gently used floor mats at a steeply discounted price.
Master Bloch's friend is Master Joe Hasan, head instructor of Pil Sung Taekwon Do in Guilderland NY, and 8th Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. Master Hasan is the one who promoted Master Bloch to 5th Dan in ITF Taekwondo a few years ago.
It turns out Master Hasan only had use of the mats for ONE day (Saturday April 20th) for a large tournament in Troy, New York. Which meant, when we talked Saturday morning, we either had to pass on this really good opportunity, or drop everything and drive immediately to New York. We chose the latter!
We requested people to make donations to cover the costs of the floor. To our great surprise, we raised the full amount ($2000) in less than twenty-four hours. We handed the reins of the classes over to Mark and Lucas, rented a U-Haul, and Laoshi Eliot, Greta, and Ursula headed out to New York to get the mats. It was a pleasure meeting Master Hasan.
Sunday, we moved all the equipment off the floor and removed the old foam mats. There was far less mold than expected, thankfully. We vacuumed it up and soaked the floors in Borax to kill any remaining mold.
Monday, we took several hours to level the floors.
Tuesday, we put down the new foam mats; very time-consuming as the border mats all needed to be cut to size. Then we replaced all the equipment, we started at 11am and finished about 20 minutes class started at 4:15pm.
It was an incredibly intense sprint of fundraising and manual labor, but we got it done! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed to making the school a better place to train.
Donors (Chronological Order)
Bonci Family
Atherton Family
Wegel Family
Merriam Family
Cassie Johnson
Shechter & Taller Family
Irene Gruber
Marla Iyasere
Rachel Natola
Lorli Hardigg
Giarusso & Mondel Family
Jinnee Strus
Ken Gareau
Wright Family
Kaitlin Holman
Cheung Family
Roberts Family
Globerson & Heimberg Family
Amatya & Kalavagunta Family
Ellie Springer
Vanessa Spilios
Nunes Family
Maslow & Shackford Family
Pam Newton & John Houchin
Stewart Family
Munkenbeck Family
Molly Bell
Volunteers (Chronological Order)
Greta Prisby
Ursula Prisby
Yaron Dar
Mark Globerson
Andy Roberts
Shawn Klingener
Sherry Banks
Sachi Amatya
Andrew Knight
Greg Stewart
Alice LoCicero
Allison Mondel
Gene Redner
We’d like to extend special thanks to Mark, Andy, Sherry, Greta, and Allison, who showed up multiple days to help with the project. We’d also like to thank Mark Globerson and Lucas Wright for running class on Saturday while Laoshi traveled to New York.
This is what a Kung Fu family is all about, and this is what community can accomplish.
