On April 6, 2010, Oom Yung Doe Instructor Greg Martin was one of fourteen people to receive the Volunteer of the Year Award for the YMCA of Greater Seattle. The School of Oom Yung Doe has partnered with the local YMCA since 2009, helping them to provide quality after school activities to local middle school students by giving Traditional Martial Arts lessons free of charge.
The YMCA presented this award saying that, “Training in traditional martial arts equips young people for a lot of today’s challenges, and Instructor Greg Martin is passing these lessons on to students from Hamilton International Middle School. Through the Meredith Mathews East Madison YMCA Community Learning center there, Greg offers free lessons in the Oom Yung Doe Style of martial arts… He focuses his work with youth on building physical strength, enhancing mental health and developing quality of character. Greg constantly reminds his students that they can succeed at anything they do.”
Greg felt honored and thankful for receiving the award, saying that, “The School of Oom Yung Doe works with many members of the community and we didn’t hesitate to partner with the YMCA. It is a great feeling to see people of all ages, especially children, benefit from martial arts training by challenging themselves physically, maturing mentally and growing as people. I feel deeply happy that I am helping to provide a positive influence on the youth of our community. I hope that I can help to continue cultivating the relationship between the YMCA and the School of Oom Yung Doe. I think it would be great to expand our community services to offer women’s self defense training, and seniors fall prevention workshops.”
For further information on programs at the YMCA or community activities at the School of Oom Yung Doe visit www.ymcaseattle.org or www.OomYungDoe-nw.com.
The Fremont Chamber Soapbox 