Karate Students Put Their Best Feet Forward to Benefit Charity

In a Hollywood karate studio, an instructor and his students are practicing moves and talking about an upcoming competition.

Master Stan Smith and 15 students from the Tang Soo Karate Academy will compete Saturday in the 1992 Fight for Cancer National Karate Championships at the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.

Students making the trip plan to compete in the breaking, weapons, forms and free fighting categories. Tournament organizers expect 1,000 to 2,000 competitors from across the country to participate in the annual event.

“This is for charity,” Smith said. “There are no losers, and we still win because we donate (the proceeds) to the American Cancer Society.”

The team, whose members range in age from 11 to 55, met through classes at the academy and decided to try their hands at the competition. Besides age, skill levels also vary, from green to black belt. In preparation for the championships, students have been training an additional four hours a week for the past three months under Smith’s guidance. Practice sessions have emphasized not only the physical moves of the sport, but the mental aspect as well.

“I’ll stay (at the studio) as long as it takes to make them better,” Smith said. “If they are willing, I am willing.”

Team members must pay their own way plus entrance fees for the one-day contest. Despite the cost, students have found that the training sessions have lifted their spirits.

“We’ve all been putting in a group effort,” said team captain Chris Naggiar. “The spirit of the school has gone up, and it’s all for a worthy cause.”

West Los Angeles resident Hannibal Heredia has been named 1992-1993 editor in chief of the Southwestern University Law Review at the Southwestern School of Law.

The law review is a student-edited quarterly journal that publishes articles by lawyers, jurists, professors and students.

Heredia earned a bachelor of arts degree from Auburn University.

Jerry Zaslaw, chief executive of Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services, has been elected president of the Assn. of Children’s Services Agency of Los Angeles County. Zaslaw, who has been with the agency for five years, will develop necessary and progressive services for children and families.

Marnie Duke Mitze has been named managing director of Pepperdine’s Center for the Arts on the Malibu campus.

Mitze, former director of performing arts presentations at UC Riverside, will supervise the Raitt Recital Hall, and Smothers and Lindhurst theaters. She will also work with the new Center for the Arts Guild to raise funds for art programs.

Terry Bell became president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles at a dinner at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple on June 24. Bell is the second woman to head the 80-year-old organization, which supports humanitarian needs in Los Angeles and abroad.