Phot Via Getty and CMA LIC
Jan. 29, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
A Long Island City martial arts school has launched a break-a-thon fundraiser to aid the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.
Students at Champions Martial Arts Long Island City, located at 49-15 Vernon Blvd., have each received fundraising envelopes and will break a board for every $10 donation they receive over the next month.
The campaign, running from Jan. 20 until March 1, aims to use students’ martial arts talents to raise money and spread awareness for victims of the California wildfires, which have destroyed at least 16,000 structures and killed at least 29 people.
Once they know how many donations they have received, students will break boards at a break-a-thon at Champions Martial Arts at the end of February.
Master William Dobie, Head Master at Champions Martial Arts LIC, said the commitment to break a board for every $10 donation aims to add a martial arts element to the fundraising drive.
“That’s our fundraising angle as a martial arts school,” Dobie said. “A lot of people have other fundraising angles. Maybe they’ll run or whichever, just like in a marathon. Our angle is martial arts, so we wanted to use boards as an easy way to have that as our angle to fundraise and help out.”
Dobie also hopes that the fundraising campaign will help teach his younger students important life skills, including empathy for people who are less fortunate. Champions regularly organizes toy and food drives to give back to the community and make students aware of the importance of helping others.
“It just gives time for children to think about what they have and how others don’t have the basic needs that they once had or never had,” Dobie said.
Champions Martial Arts, which operates dozens of locations across and New Jersey, including numerous Queens locations, is running the fundraising campaign across all of its locations and has partnered with Operation Child Rescue, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting child hunger.
At the end of the campaign, Champions and OperationCR will select charities in Los Angeles to receive the donation drive’s proceeds. Dobie said Champions is currently considering charities such as the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, which helps people find affordable housing, and humanitarian and disaster relief charity Convoy of Hope.
Anyone interested in donating to the appeal can do so on GoFundMe.
CMA/LIC
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