Karate Academy to raise funds for culinary students

With area students needing assistance to make it to a national culinary competition, Greencastle’s All-American Karate Academy is again kicking in its support.

The Area 30 culinary arts program and instructor Mary Anne Birt are trying to raise $5,000 to send five students to Charleston, S.C., for the National ProStart Invitational on April 28-30.

The team made it to the nationals by winning the state competition last month.

In the interest of supporting the community and youths in particular, the Karate Academy will host a Sunday Sampler beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 9.

The sampler, which is available for a free-will donation, is a chance to check out some of the fitness opportunities availale for the academy at 1021 Indianapolis Rd. while supporting the culinary arts team.

The event will begin with an introduction by Birt at 2 p.m., followed by 20-minute sampler classes beginning every half hour.

The schedule of classes will be as follows:

• 2:30 p.m., Refit with Mary Ann.

• 3 p.m., Tabata with Erin Gibbons

• 3:30 p.m., Kettlebell AMPD with Niki St. Pierre

• 4 p.m., Step Aerobics

• 4:30 p.m., Pound with Rebecka Howard

• 5 p.m., kickboxing with Niki St. Pierre

Instructor and academy owner Niki St. Pierre said participants can try just one class or all of them. The 20-minute time limits shouldn’t be too tough to handle.

“If people want to come in and do the whole event, it won’t be so much that they’ll be dead the whole week,” St. Pierre said. “Any free-will donation and you can do as much or as little as you want.”

St. Pierre said the academy is happy to support Birt and her students.

“Mary comes in and does step aerobics and Pound periodically, so she’s familiar with our facility and some of my instructors as well,” St. Pierre said. “So it was just a nice little partnership we were able to put together for this.”

She added that if all goes well, this may be a model they may repeat in the future to perhaps send karate academy students to competitions.

“We’re looking forward to it,” St. Pierre said. “It’s going to be a fun day for us and we’re hoping to raise a lot of funds for them.”