For the 10th consecutive year, Martial Arts Family Fitness (MAFF), a family owned and operated school dedicated to improving lives through martial arts, has coordinated an Adopt-a-Family program for Thanksgiving.

Several dozen students, instructors and staff team members of MAFFl worked together to feed less fortunate families in the Santa Barbara area as part of a national project called the Thanksgiving Basket Brigade.

“Thanksgiving is a very important time of the year for many of us,” said Melodee Meyer, co-owner of Martial Arts Family Fitness. “Our family of martial artists, instructors, fitness students and staff have fed close to 1,500 Santa Barbara families since we started in 2010.

“This year is our tenth year doing this, and we continue our tradition of providing complete Thanksgiving meals to local families that otherwise might not be able to celebrate and enjoy the holiday. As a martial arts school, we believe that it is our responsibility to help others and make our community a better place to live for everyone.

“This is one simple way for us to express gratitude for the blessings of this past year.”

The Adopt-a-Family program encourages fitness and martial arts students, staff and their families to donate money used to buy food, which in turn is included in food baskets. Students and staff assembled and distributed the baskets to families identified as requiring assistance.

Donations started at $30, and a $60 donation filled a basket with a complete dinner for the adopted family.

Each basket includes all the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner, including a turkey, stuffing, vegetables, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, butter and pie. Baskets were assembled on Nov. 23 at Martial Arts Family Fitness, 122 E. Gutierrez St., and delivered to families throughout Santa Barbara immediately after.
 
“The annual Basket Brigade provides us an opportunity to become unified to accomplish good in our community,” said Dave Wheaton, grandmaster and co-owner of Martial Arts Family Fitness. “It is a time to come together and share the love for others and pass that example to our children and youth in the community.

“We partnered with Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara, Transition House of Santa Barbara and St. Vincent’s Garden of Santa Barbara and appreciate their assistance in identifying families that may not otherwise celebrate Thanksgiving in the same manner that most of us do.

“As a school, and a business, we have a lot to be grateful for and part of who we are is to give thanks and share in this gratitude.”
 
“This is by far my favorite event, and the most important event, that our school is involved in,” said Austin Curtis, MAFF’s operations manager. “Our incredible volunteers assembled and delivered over 180 baskets with cards created by our youth students to pre-selected families. It is always amazing to see the reaction of the families that receive these baskets.

“We are so proud of our students for all their hard work in making this a successful community event where we do our part in taking care of each other and our neighbors.”

Celebrating its 18th year in business, Martial Arts Family Fitness opened its doors in Santa Barbara in 2002. Wheaton, the chief instructor, has trained in martial arts for 50 years and is a ninth dan in Hapkido, a seventh dan in Taekwondo and the founder of Hapkido International, an organization that teaches his martial arts curriculum of Dynamic Circle Hapkido to many schools across the U.S.

For information on Martial Arts Family Fitness visit www.kickboxers.com or call 805-963-6233.

— Alex Rodriguez for Martial Arts Family Fitness.