GREENFIELD — This Saturday the Greenfield Tae Kwon Do studio will host its annual “break-athon,” a fundraiser for Warm the Children, at the studio on Federal Street.
The event runs from 9 a.m. until around noon and will feature martial arts students breaking pine boards. The students take donations from friends and family, either flat donations or a certain amount for every board they break. Then those are all collected and given to The Recorder’s Warm the Children clothing drive.
The fundraiser for Warm the Children is actually three parts: A raffle and face-painting at Pumpkinfest, the break-athon, and then the sale of the broken boards as kindling bundles. The studio covers all of the overhead costs, so all donations go directly to the charity, which annually provides winter clothing like jackets, boots and hats to about 1,000 needy children in Franklin County.
The martial arts studio gets donations from local lumber yards for the boards. So far they have about 1,500 boards to break on Saturday.
The event is in its 13th year, and over the previous 12 years, the studio has raised a collective $72,691 for the charity, according to the studio’s owner and master instructor David Johnson. They expect to bring in $4,000 to $6,000 this year.
The studio’s fundraising efforts have always gone toward Warm the Children.
“It has a direct impact on our local society. It’s something that we can do that is instantly beneficial,” said Johnson.
The students will be breaking boards at the studio, at 102 Federal St. The public is invited to watch.
To donate directly to Warm the Children, send a check to: Warm the Children, c/o The Recorder, P.O. Box 1367, Greenfield, MA 01302. New clothing may also be dropped off at The Recorder, at 14 Hope St., any time during the year.
The Recorder will carry weekly stories about the progress of this year’s drive and the people helping over the next several weeks. If you have stories to tell about Warm The Children or are planning fundraisers, let us know.