 |
Nippon
Kan’s December Activity Report 2003
Nippon Kan Receives Recognition
from the Denver Parks Department
Children’s Class Promotions
Nippon Kan’s Beginners Class
Survey 2003
Mongolian Seniors Holiday Party
13th Year of Service at the Denver
Rescue Mission Draws to a Close
Nippon Kan’s End of Year Instructor
and Office Staff Appreciation Party
Keiko Osame and Toshi Koshi Geiko
Nippon Kan Receives Recognition
from the Denver Parks Department.
Dec. 5th, 2003
For going on fourteen years, Nippon Kan has been involved with
Hands on Denver as a leading volunteer organization. In fact, Hands
on Denver itself, a voluntary subsidiary organization of the Denver
Parks Department began with Nippon Kan fourteen years ago. What
started as a Nippon Kan volunteer project to turn the flower beds
for winter in Denver City Parks has grown into a city-wide project
sponsored by Hands on Denver of the Denver Parks Department.
The volunteer recognition event was held at the Denver City Parks
Greenhouse, which set a festive tone with the hundreds of Poinsettia
plants that were housed there for the holidays. The event was presided
over by Denver’s new Mayor, John Hickenlooper, and Denver
Parks and Recreation Department Staff.
Emily and Mary with
Denver Parks Volunteer Coordinator Joan Wilson.
The award presented recognized all Nippon Kan members for their
hard work and enthusiasm in 2003. Thanks to everyone who participated
this year!
Children’s Class Promotions.
Dec. 6th, 2003
Children’s Class promotions were held December 6th 2003 for
the 65 children currently enrolled in Nippon Kan’s children’s
classes. Nippon Kan’s children’s classes are held once
a week on Saturday mornings. There are two classes held each Saturday,
one general class for younger members, and the advanced children’s
class for more advanced children who have been nominated to attend
that special class. Both children’s classes are instructed
by Tom Dammen Sensei, Nippon Kan Children’s Class Instructor,
and are assisted by hakama level adult members.
Every martial art school has their own philosophy and teaching
method. It is an integral part of Nippon Kan’s teaching method
NOT to have promotion testing or fees. This is a very unique concept
as many dojos rely on promotion and testing fees as an income producer.
Homma Kancho distinctly excludes testing or promotion fees as part
of Nippon Kan’s teaching philosophy. All children members
pay a flat fee of $25.00 per month, and there are no additional
charges, examination fees, contracts or obligations. During the
promotion ceremonies, Homma Kancho told the attending audience
of parents and guardians, “If you think about it, just the
fact that these kids chose coming to class over sleeping in or
watching cartoons is a feat in itself. I do not believe it is fair
to judge children for promotion by forcing them through some standardizing
three-minute promotion examination. Sometimes kids come to class
a little lethargic and laze in the corners, yet it is these same
kids that surprise us by jumping up to help younger children with
a technique they are trying to execute. There is no way to judge
these kids; each one is an individual.
Sometimes parents of new students ask us to be hard on their kids
to, “teach them some discipline” they say. However,
Nippon Kan is not a military training center or junior boot camp.
Here we do not believe in lining the children up and making them
perform rote machine like movement drills. This is not the movies,
and children in real life do not turn into “the Karate Kid” in
a few hours of practice.
When children of different ages practice Aikido together at Nippon
Kan they naturally organize themselves into different age levels,
and levels of proficiency. They make their own code of acceptable
conduct and form their own system of rules. It usually takes about
six months for new students to settle into this natural hierarchy.
Therefore, Nippon Kan holds children’s promotions twice a
year to acknowledge their achievements. Nippon Kan promotions are
based on attendance and personal evaluation by the instructor staff.
This promotion system has always been widely accepted by parents,
who understand and support Nippon Kan’s children’s
ranking system. I thank all of the parents and guardians here today
for their understanding of this unique program for children”.
At the end of the ceremony, Talia Moore, and Tim Dimascio, two
of the children’s class senior students presented a bouquet
of roses to Tom Dammen Sensei on behalf of all the students present,
to thank him for his dedication and teaching. The children in the
advanced class were also awarded special patches that identify
them as role models for their advancement and achievements.
To learn more about Nippon Kan’s and Homma Kancho’s
philosophy on teaching children, please read “The
Children and the Martial Arts, an Aikido Point of View” ISBN # 55643-139-2
which is available through local books stores or at Nippon Kan.
Nippon Kan’s Beginners Class
Survey 2003.
Dec.10th, 2003
Nippon Kan offers six sessions of six-week beginner’s classes
per year. Each session offers classes in four different time slots,
to accommodate student’s schedules. Nippon Kan had between
400-450 beginning class students attend classes in 2003. Of these
beginning class students about fifty students joined Nippon Kan
as ongoing regular members this year. Some beginning students
join as regular members right after their beginner class session
is
finished, while others take a break before joining. This year
our Nippon Kan Beginning class instructor and advisor staff developed
an exit survey, which was sent to 363 of the beginning class
graduates.
The concept behind the survey was to learn from students about
their experience in Beginners class, and if they joined, their
participation in the following general classes.
Out of the 363 surveys mailed, about seventy-two were returned
as “no longer at that address”, which is a sign of
the times. We did receive about forty responses to our questionnaire,
and the feedback was illuminating. There were fourteen questions
on the survey, and we were nicely surprised that close to 100%
of the responses about the Beginners class were positive and constructive.
We did discover that the transition from beginner’s class
to general classes was a little difficult for some, which will
be an area for our instructor staff to concentrate on improving.
Many thanks to everyone who was involved in developing the survey,
and to those who responded with their personal feedback!
Mongolian Seniors Holiday Party
Dec. 14th, 2003
In front of the Ger (traditional Mongolian house
at Nipon Kan).
A special party was held at Nippon Kan for the seniors of
the Denver Mongolian community on December 14th. This event,
sponsored
by
AHAN (the Aikido Humanitarian Active Network), was held
to honor these special Denver residents, and provide them with
an afternoon
celebration just for them! This year, the party’s main event
was a karaoke contest. We weren’t sure how everyone
would respond to this, and we were delighted that the response
was
overwhelming. EVERYONE wanted to sing, and the thirty-five
attending seniors
treated us to gifts of songs from many different regions
of Mongolia. In the end, it was way too difficult to choose
the
top three
singers, so the prizes were awarded by lottery, with the
numbers drawn on
bags full of oranges and bananas! Everyone won a prize
gift bag to take home. Even though a few of the oranges
and bananas
were
consumed before the numbers were read, the karaoke contest
was declared a great success!
All of those attending were over fifty years of age, and
this was a special time for them to get together and share
food,
and song,
and drink from their homeland. Many of these seniors have
traveled far from their homes to be with their children
who live and
study or work in Denver. For most of these seniors, their
job is to
help with the grandchildren at home while their parents
work, which
can be isolating at times. This was a great opportunity
for them to see each other, relax and enjoy themselves
together
as a group.
A staff of younger members of the Denver Mongolian community
came to Nippon Kan a day in advance to help prepare special
Mongolian culinary delights such as “Boz”,
steamed meat dumplings for the seniors to enjoy. This party
was organized
by AHAN staff,
Homma Kancho and Altbish from the Mongolian community.
This unique event is part of AHANs ongoing support of the
Mongolian
community
in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and here in Denver. Nippon Kan
continues its support of orphanage facilities in Ulaanbaatar
and locally
supports the Denver Mongolian Newspaper, and the teaching
of Mongolian music and culture among its other activities.
Thanks
to all for
making this party a grand success!
Young Mongolian women help
prepare foods
for the party. |
|
Traditional snuff exchange between two
Mongolian seniors. |
Smiles all around! |
|
Chatting excitedly with friends
from the
homeland. |
Homma Kancho receives appreciation award
from the Mongolian community. |
|
|
13th Year of Service at the Denver Rescue Mission Draws to a Close.
Dec. 21st, 2003
At this December’s homeless meal service, Nippon Kan
volunteers served their 34,364th meal at the Denver Rescue
Mission. The
three hundred meals served this day (including second
helpings) were
a little fancier for the holidays. The record for second
helpings was set a few years back by a mission guest
who had four full
meal helpings in about a fifteen minute period!
After the dinners were served, everyone was presented
with a new pair of warm winter socks. The funds used
to buy the socks was
raised in part by the Nippon Kan holiday seminar held
November 15-16th, 2003. As is customary, many Nippon
Kan members lent a
hand in preparing and serving this special holiday meal
at the mission. Thank you to all Nippon Kan members for
making this holiday
a little brighter, and a little warmer for some of our
Denver residents.
Nippon Kan’s End of Year
Instructor and Office Staff Appreciation Party.
Dec. 28th, 2003
As is tradition, at the end of every year, Homma Kancho
has a party to honor the twenty eight staff members and
their
families who
work so diligently at Nippon Kan as office staff, instructors
and assistant instructors. At this meeting the year in
review report
was read about all the activities and projects that had
been successfully completed in 2003, and projected activities
for 2004 were discussed.
Homma Kancho outdid himself cooking his famous delicacies
and a good time was had by all. After the activity report
for 2003
was
read, someone blurted out “Is that ALL!” which
brought about laughs from everybody present. Spouses
and significant others were visibly surprised by the
number
and scope of Nippon
Kan activities
for 2003.
One serious subject was discussed at this gathering,
and that was the official announcement that Mr. Andrew
Blevins,
a former
member
of the Nippon Kan staff had decided to leave Nippon Kan
to pursue his own private activities. It was officially
announced
that
Mr. Blevins had decided that his philosophy of practice
for profit and personal benefit no longer fit with Nippon’s
philosophy, and has set out to pursue other avenues for
himself. As this
is his choice, all of the staff at Nippon Kan chose to
honor his decision
to no longer be associated with Nippon Kan.
All of Nippon Kan’s various activities, operations
and projects are supported our staff of volunteers. Each
volunteer
has careers,
families and their own practice schedule to juggle as
well as serving as part of the volunteer staff a few
hours a
week.
Nippon Kan receives an average of forty calls and emails
per day which is a great source of study for our office
staff. Our Instructor
staff meet many different kinds of people in the classes
they
teach, and it is always a constant challenge to learn
from students and
improve ways of helping people understand the word of
Aikido. This kind of study is part of our true study
of Aikido,
and is invaluable
in the training it imparts. Volunteers learn the challenges
of dealing with people, and organizing the sometimes
massive amounts
of behind the scenes support for projects and seminars.
This is part of our training, and its importance is part
of Nippon
Kan
and AHAN’s philosophy.
Our Nippon Kan staff does not look for rewards or monetary
gain for their actions, yet they willingly volunteer
their time and
abundant talents to make Nippon Kan what is today. Many,
many thanks for all of your support this year!
Nippon Kan Staff (sorry if we did not
get everyone in the picture!) |
|
New Nippon Kan Dojo Relations
Coordinator,
Scott Olson |
Keiko Osame and Toshi Koshi Geiko
Dec. 29th, 31st, 2003
Nippon Kan end-of-the-year ceremonies begin with Keiko
Osame, or the last practice of the year. On December
29th, over fifty students
gathered for this last special practice before the
holiday break. This year marked the passing of Shigeru Kawabe
Shihan who passed
away in 2003. To honor his passing, Toshi Koshi Geiko
or the midnight practice between December 31st, 2003
and January 1st, 2004 was
performed privately by Homma Kancho. Kawabe Shihan
was
from the same hometown as Homma Kancho, and a long
time supporter and advisor
to Nippon Kan.
|
