COVID-19 Anniversary

Hello everyone! This week, one year ago—students from Chang’s Taekwondo Martial Arts in South Surrey, Cloverdale, Tsawwassen, Aldergrove, and Mission went on Spring Break and didn’t return to the classrooms or the Taekwondo mats until June. Much has changed since then, our dojang has been lucky enough to have a strong team holding our business together. We jumped on ZOOM quickly and by the end of March we had a strong online program tested and ready to implement. Between regular classes, mailing stripes, delivering prizes, belts, and certificates we were more engaged with our community than before; a gentle irony for the situation we were in. As June approached we were part of phase 2 in the reopening of BC’s businesses. We successfully opened our Dojang’s doors on June 1st, 2020. We were checking temperatures, asking important questions, wearing masks, and socks—But we were back! Very happy to be training on the mats; no matter how! As the summer came to an end, our fall training became more comfortable. We were used to wearing masks, we weren’t slipping as much with the socks on, and we were getting back into a good shape! December posed a challenge as we jumped back onto ZOOM during a closure when the cases were on the rise.  We postponed our belt ceremonies, our black belt exams, and more! As we’ve come to understand our situation better and better, now we have decided to make it happen. Our gala will go on as usual, online! This will be the most interactive gala ever. We will be bringing together media from many different ceremonies and classes to provide an engaging and entertaining show. Featuring our Instructors doing an ‘Among Us’ skit, and demonstrations from our CDT (Chang’s Demonstration Team), weapons classes, sparring classes, advanced kicking classes. The 17th annual Chang’s Taekwondo Gala will be a test of all our online skills. We plan on showcasing what we learned and how we grew from this pandemic. There is a saying in martial arts:“This too—is training.”We can either come out of the pandemic looking to be where we were, or planning to grow further BECAUSE of the pandemic!I’m sure you know what we plan.On that note, see you on the mats.