Sensei Miko Update Letter

Hi Everyone,

It is great to be back. Anyone who has ever been gone from Coronado for
any length of time, especially abroad, knows the feeling of lading at San Diego
airport, seeing the bridge from the plane window, then driving along the bay
and finally crossing the bridge. That view from the top of the bridge
where the Island is laid right at your feet, with the bay all around it, is
really something. Plus, knowing that this is home is a terrific feeling,
no matter how often you do it never seems to get old.

My 3 kids are back in school, and I think by now so is everyone else. Eitan
is a Junior with a workload which includes a bunch of AP classes and water polo
that would break the back of a male African elephant, but he's motivated to get
it done, and I know he will. Doroni is a freshmen at CHS and loving his
teachers and he's the captain of the novice H2O polo team. He comes home
with great stories about the teachers and he's proud to be at CHS. Tali is in
3rd grade, just like a lot of other kids in the dojo, we really have a lot of
first and third graders this year and.... Seriously what could possibly not be
terrific when you are in third grade.

I want every student at MAA to have a terrific school year. Please let me know if your child is NOT having one and we'll help him or her turn it around.

Last thing that happened before I took Doroni and Tali on our trip to Israel
(I'll tell you about the trip later in this message) was the Relay For Life. In
case you hadn't heard we were the FIRST PLACE TEAM in raising funds with over
$5000! Once again we exceeded our goal. Everyone's generosity has
been overwhelming, parents, kids and adult students all chipped in. The
event itself was fun. Not that many people spent the night, but Eitan and I did>
as did the Harkema family and the Campbell family. (Sensei David kinda
came and went...)

So thank you all once again for your help and generosity.

As we speak of raising funds, Coronado School's Foundation asked if we would be
willing to continue our commitment to them at the $5000 per year level. It is a
HUGE commitment for a small business but I don't know how anyone can say no to
helping our schools. We hear this a lot, but in my particular experience,
as in the experience of so many of the families a the dojo, the teachers at the
Coronado schools are just phenomenal, so in short I agreed to take this on once
again and to contribute $5000 to Coronado School's Foundation. The bulk
of the funds for this comes from the annual tournament we hold in the spring,
so please know when you pay the small fee for the tournament, it goes directly
to the schools here in town.

Kid Safety class is Sept. 14, right around the corner so please spread the word.

OK, now about the trip: We spent three terrific weeks in Israel. We traveled
everywhere, from the Golan Heights (including the fabulous Nimrod castle built
in the days of Salaadin) in the north to Eilat in the south. It was 110
degrees everywhere but when you are on vacation it doesn't really matter.
We spent a lot of time with family and friends. Doroni played water polo
with a few local teams and that was fun, and then he and I taught a little
karate at a friend's dojo as well. I will post PICS on the dojo facebook
(senseimiko Martial Arts America) and the dojo network http://coronadokarate.ning.com/

See you all in class