Group Gratitude

This year perhaps more than any before, our dojo has evolved into a group effort. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve our students and their families in the setting of their dojo. Here, we practice gratitude for the blessings that have strengthened our dojo this year. We are all part of a team that works together for the good of the whole. That makes the group stronger and in turn it helps the individual members.

GROUP LEADERSHIP

By focusing as a team, our core leaders have helped to grow and improve our dojo’s activities and focus. We consistently examine areas of improvement for the group as a whole. We also regularly discuss how each student is doing in their training and how we can support them. A dojo can be run solely by a single teacher, or two head instructors. But regularly putting together more instructors who pool their ideas and observations is much more beneficial to the group. We are grateful for the time, effort and attention that our core leaders devote to the dojo.

STUDENT SUPPORT

The dojo is not only a place where you go to train, get what you can out of it, pay your dues, and forget about it the rest of the time. If all students (and their families) did only that, the dojo would be in its end days. We are blessed to have students who support the dojo by giving their time, attention and support in too many ways to list here. They also use the Dojo Kun in their behavior and represent us, as traditional martial artists in the world, to their bosses, co-workers, neighbors, teachers, classmates and friends.

FAMILIES STRENGTHEN THE GROUP

Parents of our karate kids are like the silent partners of the organization. They support the group not only by sponsoring their kids’ training, but in so many other ways too. We are so grateful for our awesome karate parents, and our students’ other supportive family members too – like grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, cousins, spouses and even children of adult students. Encouragement from family members is priceless to our students and to their dojo. Thank you!

SUPPORT FROM OTHER GROUPS

Support from those who are not regularly at the dojo gives a boost to the group and fortifies it existence. Whether it is the opportunity to learn from Kaicho, or to chat online with alliance members about ways to improve a skill, the dojo and its members receive support from all over. Sometimes it’s just the friendly face of another karateka encouraging us to keep training. The friendship of other martial artists can help enrich us, improve our group and develop the training and growth of our dojo.

In short, we couldn’t do it without you. Thank you all for your support, time, love and care. Your dojo thanks you. We look forward to continuing to work with you to give positive support to improving lives.

By Jenifer Tull-Gauger