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.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Lots of Lil' SIsta Fun... Tuesday, October 29

New faces at the Center of Hope in my Lil' Pow Boxing Class means new survivors of human trafficking; innocent girls that were victimized and will never be the same.  That's a hard one to digest, to accept and to wrap your head around because them being victimized is nothing that they deserved.

They're just girls.  

Today I had coaching at the Center of Hope.  I usually go the third Saturday of the month but with this past weekend me having Spartan on Sunday, I had to go to bed early after prepping for it.  So today I went instead.  I arrived in the early afternoon with all my boxing gear and will clothing donations from my fighters, local companies and several people within my community.  Bags upon bags of gently used clothing and then a few bags of candy too.  For their post boxing snack, in the spirit of Halloween, I gave them little candy loot bags one of my fighters had donated.  The girls were super excited about it and they ruffled through their little bags, eager to see what exactly was in it.  

One of my team coaches has been really stepping up her game in terms of helping me run the class.  She's amazing and if it weren't for the fact that she is only 16, she'd be the first I'd ask to hire.  I'm also leaning towards hiring this one girl, if they allow me.  I've proposed a position to the Center of Hope and have discussed with it several times but I don't know why the delay in moving forward with this.

I got a chance to briefly talk with their CEO, Cecilia, and though she is recently retired, she still makes her rounds to the Center and with the Voice of the Free.  We both agreed that we need to meet to further discuss things.

Initially I really wanted to do a Girls Nite In event with them, the girls at the Center of Hope, but that too I've been waiting for a response.  Having said that, on Thursday I'm scheduled to coach the Lil' Sistas at Holy Family Home.  I messaged them to remind them and in chatting with them online, they mentioned that I'd only have 11-12 girls on Thursday.  Because with it being a holiday, some of the girls who do have parents will be visiting family.  Those staying behind are the orphans; those without family.  When she mentioned that, I felt super sad for them.  Thursday is going to be an expected day for them so I thought, let's change that.  Let's make it the total opposite for them.  Let's make it one of the best days for them so that not only do they forget why they were "left behind" but they also forget about their situation in general and just return to being careless kids.  

Now officially planning a pool party for them.  I'm super excited about it too.

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