Overview:
The Greenfield Tae Kwon Do Center is hosting its annual Break-athon to raise money for Warm the Children, a winter clothing drive. Participants will break wooden boards, receiving support through per-board pledges and flat donations, and will then sell the broken pieces as kindling to raise money. The event has been held since 2002 and has raised more than $120,000.
GREENFIELD — About 2,021 wooden boards are lining the interior of the Greenfield Tae Kwon Do Center for students to snap during this weekend’s “Break-athon.”
Through per-board pledges and flat donations, the event raises money for Warm the Children, an annual winter clothing drive. After the big day of breaking, the Greenfield Tae Kwon Do Center sells the broken boards and extra wood scraps as bags of kindling for $10 each, with proceeds supporting Warm the Children.
Since it began in 2002, the Break-athon has raised $120,155, according to the center’s founder, owner and instructor David Johnson.
“We’ve been doing this almost two and half decades,” Johnson said. “We’re really proud of that, not because of what we’re doing, but because of what it’s for. It’s to take care of local children.”
Warm the Children is a group of 27 nonprofits across the country that seek donations from their local community to provide winter clothing and footwear for local children in need. Warm the Children programs typically ask for a local newspaper and service organization to sponsor the effort. In Greenfield, the Recorder is that newspaper, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and Community Action Pioneer Valley are the affiliated service organizations.
The Recorder partners with local retailers to provide gift cards to beneficiaries of Warm the Children with the money that is raised. The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts oversees the account containing donations, and Community Action is responsible for the distribution of gift cards to families. They can be used in the store or online to buy clothing for each qualifying child, 12 years old or younger.
Last year, the fundraiser provided new coats and clothes to about 625 children in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region. Warm the Children recipients are suggested by various social service agencies and community organizations.
In addition to individual donations, Warm the Children relies on two major annual fundraisers: the Greenfield Tae Kwon Do Center’s Break-athon and an annual golf tournament led by the Greenfield Kiwanis Club.
Starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, about 36 students ages 6 to 66 will stomp, punch, kick and “knife hand” every board in half.
“We break boards until there are no boards left to break,” Johnson said, sitting next to the stacks of boards at the Greenfield Tae Kwon Do Center.
While breaking boards and roaring “kihaps” — the sound taekwondo athletes often shout when executing moves — is not typically associated with the performing arts, Johnson said the breaking requires artistry.
“Traditional taekwondo is very rhythmic,” explained Johnson, who has been practicing for about 50 years. “It’s that push, pull … that thing that Newton thought he was talking about with ‘every action has an equal opposite reaction.’ Newton clearly was a martial artist and he didn’t know it.”
“Taekwondo” translates to “the art of kicking and punching,” or “the way of the hand and foot,” Johnson pointed out. He compared the style to the graceful precision of dancers and gymnasts. Through breaking boards and punching, elbowing or kicking, students learn to focus power and attention into specific body parts, he said.
In classes leading up to the Break-athon, Johnson tells the students to imagine either their hand or foot as the tip of a screwdriver instead of a heavy hammer. Before the boards, they practice with X-ray paper. If the paper crumples, the strike must be more precise — if the paper snaps, the students are ready to break their first board.
“It’s a combination of accuracy of target, specificity of focus as well as angle of application,” Johnson said. “You have to think about what direction the energy is going.”
When students break their first board, “It’s about discovery” Johnson said, as they realize the key to channeling their body parts “in a focused, efficient, effective way.” Before students break their first board, Johnson encourages those watching in the studio to pull out their phones for a video. Regardless of age, Johnson said every student lights up with an epiphany.
“They have that childhood-holiday-morning face of unanticipated glee,” Johnson said. He then writes “taekwondo” in Korean, his initials and the date on the back of the broken board for the student to take home.
Johnson recalled taekwondo grandmasters telling him, “Taekwondo is all about knowledge in your mind, strength in your body and honesty in your heart.”
He continued, “When they break their first board, all those things intersect.”
Johnson said the impact of the Break-athon stretches beyond the studio and helps to spread the word about the school, which he calls “the best-kept secret in town.” According to Johnson, community members make pledges and line the walls of the studio at the Break-athon. Local lumberyards donate wood and employers of older students allow them to take time off work to prepare for and participate in the event.
Referring to the community’s shared commitment to Warm the Children, Johnson said, “We’re not all of one mind and one opinion, but we take care of each other.”