Tag Archives: Sensei Will

Where are They??

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So, two of the teens who work at the center, Mr. Arnold and Ms. Adina,  went to Kenya to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I am not sure about all the details of the program that they are in but it has something to do with sports and fitness.

Nevertheless,  lessons are created around Africa and Kenya on the account of them going there.

After reading, For you are a Kenyan Child by John Kay. The children spoke about how different Kenya must be for Mr. Arnold and Ms. Adina. Then, they wrote letters about how much they missed them.

Sensei Will, who knows more about the trip, stopped by and showed them pictures of  how far Mr. Arnold and Ms. Adina were up the mountain. He also showed them the photos that they posted on the Mary Mitchell Center’s Facebook page. They kids went wild seeing those pictures!!  It was something to see Mr. Arnold and Ms. Adina  sitting around a campfire, sleeping in camping tents and also affixed to a mountain. The pictures made the trip to Kenya more real. It also calmed the children down a bit seeing how much fun their instructors are having over in Africa. (I think some of the kids thought Mr. Arnold and Ms. Adina were not having a blast in Africa. For a while they were sad that they ever went away and one of them said, that she didn’t think they were ever going to return).

After seeing the photos and talking about Kenya, they felt more satisfied about the trip and their instructors going.      IMG_9975

Edwin Moses

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Edwin Moses

 

During the winter I had the pleasure meeting Edwin Moses,  a former American track and field athlete, who won gold medals in the 400 mile hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics.

I met him at the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center during an event for the Martial Arts class, Fight Back. Fight Back gets a lot of support from the Laureus World Sports Academy, which Moses is the Chairman of.

As you can tell from the picture, I was pretty excited to meet him even though I just learned about him and his work  from staff meetings and the Fight Back instructor, Sensei Will. I think I am always excited to meet people who have the ability to aspire, whether they ‘made it’ or are just some lay person like myself.

 

Sensei Tony

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Tony&Lilly

Hi Tony! Sensei Will was telling me you grew up in North Carolina.

Yeah, I did.

He told me a little bit about your past and the racism that you had to endure with as a child. He said something about how you were tied to a tree?

Yes. I was. That happen when I was a little boy. I was only in the third grade. I remember it like yesterday. What happened was, it was Valentine’s Day. All the kids brought in candies and gifts. We had a little party. A little white girl gave me some heart  shape candy and kissed me on the cheek. You know that colorful candy with words on it shaped like a heart? Well, we had that candy back in the days too!

Anyways, when it was time to go home boys, around my age and a little older, followed me and my brother taunting us along the way. Telling us we shouldn’t be liking any white girls and things of that sort. They beat us up and then proceeded to drag us into the woods. Next, they tied us to a tree telling us they were going to leave us there for the bears to get us. We as children were terrified. It began to get dark and we were still there. Then, I saw the bushes move and that’s when I began to struggle a little more to get unloose.

Finally, the rope came unloose and I untied my brother. We first had to find our way out of the woods being that it was night-time. When we got home, the base (we lived on an army base) was filled with cops and others looking for us. When we told them what happened, nothing was done to punish the boys who taunted us.

Tony is a Martial Arts instructor at the Mary Mitchell Center. He shared his story about growing up in the south with the Mary Mitchell family.