As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Helping with What we Have... Wednesday, January 14

We've adopted two children, kind of...well not exactly but yes.  Our boxing club has taken on sponsoring two local orphaned children after a long, late night conversation with one of our Hulkies.

Last year we acted as the drop-off place for a toy drive and we hosted a dry food drive for the very same place the toy drive items were going too.  They all went to a local orphanage located across town.  When the final date came for receiving the dry food items arrived, Snickers and I then went to the orphanage to present to them what all our club members had donated.

It was a heart-pulling meeting, us and the orphanage director but not in the sense I thought it would be.  And we left feeling sad and frustrated but not because of why most would expect.

The director had denied our proposal to help.

We had planned this detail orphanage outreach program where once a month we would have a team of our friends and members from Hulk's come, pick up the kids, and take them to a local soccer field to play soccer.  Those whom we had approached about playing soccer on our end had been told they would have to commit to volunteering in this program for at least a year and if we had excess players they could volunteer on a rotational bases.  A good friend of mine who is on a semi-pro soccer team had arranged for us to get secure field time plus use of the change rooms and a local daycare was willing to rent out their small school bus/van to us.  The other part of our outreach program included training them for free at Hulk's.  Friday is our Free Train Day but it is also Fun Game Day for our mini Hulkies so we're always flooded with mini Hulkies and their visiting friends on Friday.  We had proposed that once a week, every Friday, we'd arrange for the kids to be bused here and back for some free boxing training and games at Hulk's.

They brushed off our outreach program so carelessly, saying that the "kids are too busy".  And that very well may be, the kids probably are busy, but the lack of regard for our efforts and lack of simple manner in telling us more politely was ignored and rather harsh.  I left feeling so sad for those kids and so disgusted that they were living under the control of a woman Snickers was quick to call "a spoiled egg".  Since then, I haven't donated anything to that particular orphanage.  They had another Christmas toy drive this year and we didn't partake -- we didn't donate nor did we offer our club to be a donation drop-off spot.  Instead we did something extra special for the homeless in my "Yummies for Tummies" outreach program.

"Yummies for Tummies" is my own personal project that's not advertised and it's keep very low key but Snickers and I have been wanting to launch an official outreach program that we can get our club members involved.   

Tonight one of our Hulkies told us of a sad story and Snickers and I instantly wanted to help.

This particular Hulkie knows of two children who have been completely orphaned by both parents.  I won't go into the sad details of their super sad story but say that they have no contact with both their parents and now live with an uncle that is experiencing really rough times because of it all. Hearing the details of these two children's story was incredibly hard to digest and I couldn't believe what I was even hearing it so both Snickers and I stated we wanted to help.  We don't have the finances to help financially support them but we do have a big boxing club and it's full of many wonderful people, many of which are mini Hulkies (members under the age of 16).  I think if these two young ones were to come here and just meet some of our Hulkies, they'd feel so much better.  I think our Hulkies are pretty awesome and their high energy and enthusiasm they sport is just so contagious and so great.  When these two new ones come to our club, they'll be introduced just like everyone else and no one will be the wiser, but that's the point.  These kids need some normalcy in their life, some deeper connection to people beyond others pointing them out and feeling sorry for them.  They need to be given the chance to do what kids do best and that's just be kids.  

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