Boston Karate School Brings Holiday Cheer to Homeless Veterans
For their winter community service activity, the karate students of Emerald Necklace Budo Martial Arts (karateinboston. com) spread some holiday cheer by participating in the “Adopt-A-Vet” program at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. Students volunteered to “adopt” veterans by purchasing and donating gifts that were listed on individual veteran's wish lists.
BOSTON, MA (PRWEB) December 23, 2004
For their winter community service activity, the karate students of Emerald Necklace Budo Martial Arts (www. karateinboston. com) spread some holiday cheer by participating in the “Adopt-A-Vet” program at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. Students volunteered to “adopt” veterans by purchasing and donating gifts that were listed on individual veteran's wish lists. After their Saturday morning karate class ended on December 18, the students loaded their gifts into a van and drove them down to the shelter for a personal delivery.
“More than half of the dojo participated in this activity, and I couldn’t be happier,” says Jason Gould, Dojo Director and Chief Instructor. “The karate students at our dojo are special, generous people, and the veterans at the shelter are certainly deserving of both our gratitude and a brighter holiday.”
"This really means a lot to me, as I'm a veteran myself.” Gould continues. “But this activity wasn’t my idea. Kathleen, one of the students here, came up with the idea, and I asked her to run with it. The results speak for themselves.”
The mission of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans is to help rehabilitate and reintegrate veterans who are homeless, unemployed or underemployed by providing them with the tools to move toward self-sufficiency. They pursue this mission by providing a spectrum of supportive services that includes housing, counseling, vocational training, job search workshops, living skills and health-related programs. According to NESHV, about one-third of the nation's homeless male population are veterans.
Gould has been conducting traditional karate classes and self-defense programs for adults since October of 2003. The students at Emerald Necklace Budo Martial Arts regularly participate in community service activities as part of their Black Belt training. More information about Emerald Necklace Budo Martial Arts can be found online at www. karateinboston. com. More information about the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans can be found online at www. neshv. org.
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