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Twelve Years Strong and Growing
- Reflections from Mr. Peacock regarding the 12th MVKS anniversary in May, 2003
Twelve years ago in May, a handful of Manchester Karate students and myself put on a demonstration of Kenpo Karate at the Mont Vernon Village School. This was done as a part of a registration day for the first classes in the Mont Vernon Kenpo Karate Club due to start on June 3rd, 1991. The demonstration took all of 15 min to organize and 20 min to perform. The demo did not disappoint, and Mont Vernon Karate had enrolled its' first sixteen students that day. The fine performance by my friends from Manchester put Kenpo on the minds (many for the 1st time) of all who came to watch and I am forever grateful to that group of people for helping me get started.
About six months later, I came to sublease the McCollum Building from a lady doing Jazzercise and we were allowed to use the training floor that we use now, and use one section of wall for announcements, etc. The room had a " stage " in it and I used it regularly to instruct basics and such.
After about 3 months of what I'll call a dysfunctional co -existence with our Jazzercise friends, Jazzercise folded and the McCollum Building's second floor was free to be used entirely as a Karate Studio. This happened during the fall and we soon found out that there was no heat source in the building! After a vain attempt to use space heaters it was decided that we needed to do a fund - raiser to get the radiators up and running. I still remember doing classes with gloves and shoes on!!
The school was still small, so just about everybody pitched in by providing baked goods and a raffle for lessons and a demo at Lamson Farm Day. We raised about $400.00 and all proudly went to the Selectmen’s' meeting to present the money to have the heat installed.
It was a wonderful show of support for the Studio. I had no idea how much that support would grow.
So now with the heat on, I really felt like I could turn our " club " into something more, a real Karate Studio! It truly was a childhood dream come true!
Since then, more than a generation of the Mont Vernon and surrounding communities' people have come through our doors and our schools' reputation is fantastic. Of this I have reflected on quite a bit over the last few weeks. When I received the eviction notice from the town on May 3rd, I thought the end of MVKS had arrived. I was beside myself as to what the future held for my family and I. My wife kept reassuring me that things were going to be ok, I just didn't realize how ok they were going to be.
When I made a formal announcement the following week to everyone at the school, I started to realize what my wife really meant. The amount of support from everybody was overwhelming. From that point on, I KNEW things were going to be ok whether the School should move or not. As time went on and the grassroots effort began (a wonderful idea by our own John Coughlin), I began to feel very confident that the Karate School was not going to go quietly. From the personal statements made to me, or the phone calls placed to the selectmen, to the great number of people who came to the rather anti - climactic selectmen’s' meeting, a certain thing occurred to me. This was no longer about Jim Peacock maybe having to move his Karate School, it was about a community and its' friends fighting to keep something they hold dear - THEIR Karate School!!
All the guest instructors I have come into the Studio say the same thing - " you have a very nice group of people there “. If they only knew... When I'm old and gray (or bald!), that will be the most important thing I remember about Mont Vernon Karate Studio. Thank -you all for an awesome 12 years!!
Thank - you, Thank -you, Thank-you!! -Jim Peacock
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