from the March, 2016 issue of Kiai!

A Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Thousand Waves Community,

Thank you so much for your support of our Annual Member Meeting, which we held on Sunday, January 10, after Kagami Biraki.


Senpai Ryan, speaking from the presentation he linked to in this letter.

Thousand Waves staff and board leadership used the occasion to thank our community for making 2015 a wonderful year, and to report out to you, our stakeholders, on the ways we deliver our not-for-profit mission. We were thrilled to be able to report robust gains in karate program membership – those gains allowed us to end 2015 well from a financial point of view. We also celebrated the successful funding of our new training floor, and remembered our exciting 30th Anniversary weekend.

As you know, one of the primary ways we deliver our mission is by providing scholarships to those who need them for all of our programs, from ongoing karate training to Camp Kokoro to group violence prevention workshops. Last year was our best year ever for the scholarship program – we distributed close to $42,000.

2015 was also a great year for our organization’s service to the community outside of TW’s walls. Amy Jones, Violence Prevention Program Manager, reported on a new grant funded violence prevention program we’ve started delivering in agencies serving youth experiencing homelessness. Those multi-session programs will continue throughout 2016, along with the ongoing outreach and on-site work of the program, delivered by our robust and dedicated violence prevention instructor corps. Our Adapted Seido Karate (ASK) Program for children with disabilities also finished its 11th year strong, under the leadership of Sensei Rebecca, Sensei Tom, and Senpai Denise, with the dedicated assistance of a strong corps of volunteers.

Especially if you weren’t able to attend, I hope you’ll look through this linked presentation, from which we spoke at the meeting. In addition to getting a great feel for the year through photos and figures, the presentation includes an update on where Thousand Waves stands on our organizational strategic plan. Since I’ve stepped into the role of Executive Director this year, I also took the opportunity to speak to a vision of Thousand Waves that continues to prioritize the values we’ve held and the work we’ve been doing under the leadership of Sei Shihan Nancy and Jun Shihan Sarah.

We made some broad appeals during the meeting – one was for folks who are interested in participating on a Self-Defense advisory committee, which meets under the leadership of Senpai Amy, program manager, and Senpai Pamela Robert, board liaison – let Senpai Amy, ajones@thousandwaves.org, know if you are interested in being involved.

Thank you for your support. Please do not hesitate to speak with me about anything that’s on your mind at any time.

Ryan Libel
Executive Director
Thousand Waves