Young martial arts students chop for charity

A “break-a-thon” might sound like a dance contest you’d have heard about in the 1980s, but it was actually the combined focus of more than 100 young martial arts students and their determination to help those devastated by the 7.8 earthquake in Nepal last month.

At the end of class last week, youngsters and grown-ups enrolled at Master’s Taekwondo Club in Montrose have been breaking boards with their bare hands. Each piece of wood split in two translated into a $10 donation toward the Red Cross relief effort overseas.

Overall, the effort generated $2,120.

Children as young as 5 years old got a chance to break a wooden board about a quarter of an inch thick.

“It’s a good way to get the children educated on what’s going on,” said Brad Urlik, the studio’s office manager. “It’s a horrific thing what happened. We kind of tried to do our best to explain to them but also put a positive spin by helping to donate.”

The massive temblor is believed to have claimed at least 9,000 lives. A second 7.3 earthquake hit the area on Tuesday.

It was mostly the students’ parents who chipped in, Urlik said.

Breaking boards is a common technique taught in taekwondo and the emphasis is placed more on concentration and accuracy than on strength, said instructor Chris Cuellar.

That’s a concept that might be new to a kid as young as 5, but breaking a board is one of the safest ways to practice the technique without getting hurt.

“They love board-breaking. They love showing their skills and the impact of hitting something,” Cuellar said.