Inner-city karate club looks for help

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Calvin Helin still plans to operate his free karate club, primarily for Aboriginal children, in British Columbia, but after digging into his own pocket to cover club expenses the last few years, Helin, is now seeking some financial sponsors.

"It's growing so big I can't carry it anymore," Helin said of the Shudokan Aboriginal Karate Club he founded in 2002 in East Vancouver.

Helin said he doesn't have an exact figure, but estimates he has spent thousands of dollars the last few years to run the club.

Because of the club's popularity, Helin is hoping to take it to another level. To that end, the club was recently formed into a non-profit entity called the Shudokan Karate and Education Canada Society.

Officials with the society are keen to expand their emphasis of promoting the healthy benefits of participating in martial arts or any sport. Also stressed will be the importance of continuing one's education and pursuing excellence in academics and other fields.

The newly created society has some lofty goals for the next couple of years, and it has launched a fund-raising campaign in order to help achieve some of these goals.

Besides purchasing some new club equipment, goals include establishing a scholarship/bursary, having club members attend an out-of-town spring karate camp and staging a club clinic and tournament, which will hopefully attract some Japanese masters of the sport.

Helin is also keen to take some club members to Japan in 2008 to train and experience Japanese culture. And he's eager to continue rewarding some of the club's members. In the past some have been presented with donated used computers for their efforts during their karate classes.

He's hoping people will donate either new or used computers to continue this reward program. It's not necessarily the most talented members who are honored.

"We call them the Karate Kid of the Year," Helin said. "What we're looking at is their attitude and how hard they've worked."

Helin, a third-degree black belt, is one of the instructors at the Shudokan club. The club's chief instructor though is Sensei Toshiaki Nomada, who has almost 30 years of karate teaching experience in Canada and Japan.

Helin's club operates out of the Grandview Elementary School gym on Tuesdays, during the school year, from September through June. The school provides the use of the gym for free.

The original plan was to provide free karate instruction for Aboriginal children aged seven and up.

"We thought it was a good way to teach the kids about certain other things in life, like discipline," he said.

But Helin said the club is located in an impoverished part of the city. Club officials opted to open its doors to anyone interested in the program.

There are about 100 club members now, and about half of them are Aboriginal. The majority of the other members come from South and Central American, Chinese or Vietnamese families.

And it's not just children who are taking advantage of the program. Several parents of club members expressed an interest and are now also participating in the classes.

"We've got people from seven to 70," Helin said.

Helin is hoping as many of these students as possible eventually graduate to become instructors themselves. Then he's hoping that they open up their own facilities and assist Aboriginal children in other communities.

"That's the method to our madness," he said. For further information on the club go to www.shudokan.ca or call (604) 275-6670.