This month’s DOJANG TOWN MEETING is Tuesday, Dec. 11th.  Starting at 5:55 pm, Master Cashatt gives a brief orientation for new students and parents- and reminds students of upcoming events.  It is also a chance to voice questions, ideas or suggestions.  15 minutes in length.

OUR DOJANG’S 30th YEAR COMPLETE!

 Dear students, parents and friends,

This has been our dojang’s 30th year of existence in Souderton!  We celebrated on the actual opening day of Nov. 7th with a TKD demonstration along with picture and video presentations.  Thank you all the students and families who attended and to all the alumni that came by that night.  Thank you for the wonderful “30 gifts for 30 years” presented to me that night.  I have enough peanut butter cups to take me through 2019! (almost)  It was really nice of everyone -thanks again.

This lead article in December of every year I give a retrospect of what we did as a dojang this past year.  We started with an INSTRUCTOR SEMINAR the first Saturday of January 2018.  We had Mr. Phil Cerami give us a BASIX CLASS on “Mobility and Flexibility” and we had Mr. Mike Louis lead a “LIGHTSABER NIGHT” the last Friday of January.  The Saturdays of January were filled with Tai Chi Weapon seminars.  This coming January students can look forward to a “Patterns Seminar” to kick off  2019.  Look for more details in this KIAP! and at the dojang.

February started with our annual OUTDOOR CLASS in the frigid temperatures.  Feb. 4th we had a JUNIOR BLACK BELT ADVENTURE with a bowling afternoon at Earl Bowl.  We held our DOJANG CHAMPIONSHIPS on Feb. 10 which was championed by the students of Silla!  Ricky Hollenbach earned “Best of the Best” for Individual Patterns as well as Noowo (Ground Pattern).  Peyton Weaver championed the “flying high snap kick” with a jump of 83″.

In March we had our annual TUL-A-THON and this year we raised money for Jenna’s Blessings Bags, who provide survival sacks for our area’s homeless.  We did 1150 patterns with 24 participants.  We had a bad snow storm Friday where places lost power.  We raised $940 total.  In 2019 we will dedicate our TUL-A-THON (March 8 & 9) to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.  We’ve done that once every decade or our dojang’s existence so it’s time again.

In March we cleaned our ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY route 113 from Schoolhouse Road to Allentown Road.  In Ohio on March 10-11 Ricky and Rich Hollenbach qualified to represent USA in the ITF World Championships which were held in Argentina in July.  We also held our annual Tai Chi Banquet on St. Patrick’s Day! China and Ireland come together!  This year’s Tai Chi Banquet is tentatively set for March 23rd.  We had an “TKD Obstacle Course” on March 28 as a new student drive.  We will have to do that again sometime in 2019.

On April 21st, we held our annual SOUDERTON INVITATIONAL TAEKWON-DO TOURNAMENT and during the opening ceremonies we awarded OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE YEAR to CHASE ANDERSON, FAY DOLAN and DANIEL DOLAN!  We had our annual T-shirt design contest in April and the Musselman family won along with the front pocket naming our dojang’s 30th Year Anniversary, an idea that came from the Forbe’s family.

In May we held a Black Belt testing.  Phil J. Cerami, Bhavesh Gohel and Scott J. Hoffman tested for their 6th Degree, Cole M. Medvesky for his 4th Degree, Tyler H. Kratz and Dina Lynn Gerhard for their 3rd Degree, Frank J. Ciuba, Joseph Pravin DePolo and Joseph J. Defazio earned their 2nd Degree. Theo D’Agostino Pecora, Ana Paula V. D’Agostino Pecora, Fay Dolan, Daniel J. Dolan and Nicholas Ryan Mancini earned their 1st Degree.

Some of us attended Mr. Louie’s Tournament April 12 and we marched in the Harleysville Fair Days Parade Memorial Day weekend.

June always reminds us of SPIRIT OF TKD SUMMER CAMP at Camp Innabah in Spring City, PA. We had 8 participants there for their first time- a bit of a record hoping they’ll come back this year and bring friends.  This year our camp is May 31, June 1 & 2, 2019.  We also had a MOTHERS DAY SELF-DEFENSE CLASS and a FATHERS DAY PLASTIC BOARD BREAKING CLASS.  Maybe this year we’ll have the moms break boards too!

July we had our annual ALL BELTS TKD DAY CAMP from Monday to Friday working out from 9 am to 3 pm.  Friday’s special event is the 2.2 mile walk from the dojang to the Souderton pool for an afternoon of swimming fun.  Our dojang also visited Lehigh Valley’s Coca-cola stadium to see the IRON PIGS take on the COLORADO CLIPPERS.  This year we’re set for Saturday June 15 (Fathers Day weekend) for our IRON PIGS ADVENTURE.  We also cleaned our highway this month.  Ricky and Rich Hollenbach competed in the ITF World Championships in Argentina at the end of July. Although the did not get a medal, they represented our dojang and the USA very well.   Mr. Gary Apgar accompanied them and coached the team with Master Debbie Risko from Pottstown.

Other than our wonderful classes throughout August we had no major events to write about.

September we had an OPEN HOUSE-BUDDY NIGHT as we usually do at the beginning of the school year.  We also had our 18th annual UATW (Ultimate Adult TKD Weekend) at Camp Oak Hill in Nottingham, PA.  This is an exclusive weekend with only adults training and sharing a lodge for a weekend.  Lots of fun and lots of memories have come out of these weekends.

In October we had our annual DAN-GUN CELEBRATION which had competition performing the pattern Dan-gun.  This year’s champions were Kayla Higgins for the youth girls, Brendan Ray for the youth boys, Brent Ricci for the teenagers and Jeneen Ost for the adults.   We also had the DOJANG TRIVIA BOWL in October where Korguryo won for the 2nd time in the contest’s 8 year history.  We did indeed have our dojang Halloween Party the last Friday of the month.  Our students are always so creative and inspiring.

In November we started with our dojang’s 30th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION and that’s when we took our 2018 Dojang Group Picture.  This year we had Master Lees and Master Barndt join us in the picture as well as 25 of our dojang alumni!  The following week we had our TKD Marketplace selling used dobuks and gear for donations towards the WILLIAM CLARKE MEMORIAL FUND which sends students to summer camp for free by winning a 500 word essay!  We raised $130 for the fund!  On Nov. 10th we held our annual TUL JON-SA (Pattern Champion).  The Gup division was won by Tul Jon-sa Michael Horn from HOPE TKD 2.0 and the Black Belt division was won second year in a row by our own Tul Jon-sa Rich Hollenbach.

We also had a Black Belt test Nov. 17 promoting to 5th DAN, William Victor Hale Illingworth, to 3rd DAN, Jacob Deluca and Isaac J. Stiles, to 2nd DAN Jason J. Fennell and to 1st DAN, Brendan Nicolas Ray and Owen A. Purdy.  We had our TURKEY DAY EVE 500 and we had a ALL BELTS TKD SKILLS CAMP the day after Thanksgiving.

In December we can look forward to the SOUDERTON HOLIDAY PARADE Dec. 1st and our ADULT HOLIDAY PARTY on Dec. 8th.  We will have a SILENT NIGHT and perhaps some day camps over the Holidays.

Along with the Wood Board Breaking classes, free self-defense classes, the GIRLS NIGHT OF TKD, the 3 times we cleaned our highway route 113 this year and all the monthly BASIX CLASSES and MASTER CLASSES we had a very full year of training and improvement of technique.  What will 2019 hold for each of us?

Thank you for helping to make this another wonderful year at our dojang.

Sincerely,  Mark Cashatt

 

 

OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Every month Master Cashatt chooses a youth gup (color belt) who has shown outstanding characteristics in class.  Every student has a chance to be named once in their gup life.  In April every year Master Cashatt names the dojang’s youth “OUTSTANDING STUDENT OF THE YEAR” from the youth roster of the dojang.  This promotes a constant reminder for the kids to do their best!  This month Master Cashatt has chosen:

ANDREW BARAN

Andrew has been training at our dojang since August coming to us from another dojang in another state. Andrew came to our dojang as a Blue Stripe but didn’t know our patterns.  He’s been working very hard to learn our patterns and he gives 100% effort in each class.  He even stepped up to be part of our demo team for our dojang’s 30th Anniversary.  Andrew earned this award by his indomitable spirit to do the best he can every time and because of his self-control of proudly taking on lower belt levels as he catches up to our Green Belt Blue Stripes.

 

 

CLEAN-UP RT. 113

Four times a year, Mark Cashatt’s TaeKwon-Do School, Inc. is required to clean up their adopted portion of Route 113 from Schoolhouse Road to Allentown Road.  For those of us who travel that route a lot, we can see that the roadway needs our attention.

When we do community service like this we learn many lessons.  To do something for the reward of personal satisfaction is one thing, but when it’s a kind and generous gesture that helps everyone, it is even more special.  To do something that is not exactly easy and a little yucky, like picking up trash, makes us realize how important each one of us is as far as doing our part to help the world.   We also learn that cigarette smokers throw their cigarette butts out the window!!  Bending over, picking up trash and walking the mile are challenges, too. These challenges help our kids realize hard work is worth it.

On Saturday, December 8th all students and their families can meet at the Franconia Heritage Restaurant parking lot at 7:30 AM.  Please come with boots or good shoes and a willingness to pick up trash and help beautify our community.  A parent should accompany all children under 12.  Our clean up should be over by 9 AM.

We will supply the gloves and trash bags.  Please sign up on the dojang bulletin board if you plan on coming.

 

 MR. SCHANE’S HOLIDAY DAY CAMP!!

             The day after Christmas, Dec. 26th we will begin our TKD ALL BELTS DAY CAMP from 9 am to 3 pm and continue Thursday and Friday of that week.  5th DAN Jesse Schane has a wonderful camp cooked up with challenging drills and games mixed in with all the serious but fun training we need to do for advancement.

Students should bring their lunch and favorite drink, their dobuk, sparring gear and water bottle.

What better way to spend some days off between the Holidays?  It costs $150 for all three days or $60 per day.  Second family member is $10 off and so on for additional family members.  Please sign up on the wall of the dojang.

 

SILENT NIGHT PLANNED

               Silent Night is a song that many people sing during the holiday season.  The song title gave us an idea to enhance our student’s self-control.  Can you be silent for one hour?

On Friday, December 14 from 6-7 PM, there will be no verbal talking allowed in the dojang; not by students, instructors, parents or visitors.  From the moment you enter the dojang until the moment you leave the dojang, you must try your best not to verbally speak.  Breathing noise in patterns is still encouraged, or else we will get out of wind.

Students will have to keep their eyes wide open to know what to do and it challenges instructors to communicate without speech.  At 7 pm dismissal we will be allowed to talk.

Please take on this challenge and be there!!  Sign up on the dojang wall.

 

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

DEC. 1…SOUDERTON HOLIDAY PARADE  10:45 am

DEC. 8…HIGHWAY CLEAN-UP 7:30-9 AM

DEC. 8…DOJANG ADULT HOLIDAY BANQUET 6-10 pm

DEC. 11…DOJANG TOWN MEETING 5:55 pm

DEC. 14….SILENT NIGHT from 6-7 pm

DEC. 20…GUP TEST starts at 6 pm

DEC. 24 & 25..DOJANG CLOSED

DEC. 26, 27 & 28…MR. SCHANE’S HOLIDAY DAY CAMP 9 am to 3 pm

DEC. 31…MR. CARPENTER’S LAST WORKOUT OF 2018  10-11 AM

DEC. 31 & JAN. 1…NO CLASSES