The Academy of Kempo Martial Arts in Bellevue, Wa. recently made another generous contribution to the Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, bringing their total donations to well over $5,000.00.
Children's Hospital is considered one of the finest and most energetic of its type in the country. Fund-raising is backed by big businesses, small businesses and individuals, comprising the bulk of their operating monies. Founded in 1907, Children's is an institution well-known for their consistently excellent patient care, as well as their firm foundation of compassion and respect for all children.
The Academy of Kempo Martial Arts is actually a network of over a dozen Kung Fu academies, flung out over the United States. These schools all embrace the same martial arts principles, which began thousands of years ago in the famous Chinese Shaolin Temple.
Television entertainment cannot usually boast a great deal of accuracy in its portrayals, but the TV series, "Kung Fu," was an exception. As an overall way of life, the Kung Fu practiced by its hero was actually very close to the basic Kung Fu principles taught, generation after generation, at the old Shaolin Temple as well as the modern Temple Kung Fu. It was a gentle, open approach to a path of awareness, a path embraced by the perennial student of energy in all its myriad forms, and permeated by a great respect for life itself.
Causing injury is very last option on the list of solutions to problems in this style of martial arts; just as it is in true western medicine. Odd though it may seem, in the final analysis, the way of the warrior is not much different from the way of the healer.
Giving energy in the form of money is only one way the Academy of Kempo Marital Arts expresses its principles. Their academies make it a point to be proactive in their commitments to their various communities on numerous levels. Energy, they say, is energy. It would appear that very few people understand the circular nature of energy as well as the practitioner of true Kung Fu.
The term "Kung Fu" can be translated as "Time, effort and energy spent in any worthwhile endeavor." Any follower of any art, therefore, may be a Kung Fu master in his or her chosen field, if they have infused enough time, effort and energy into the study and the practice of it.
It takes a lot of Kung Fu Masters to make a special place like Children's Hospital grow and flourish. From the people on the different Boards who decide on policy and principle and make sure it is expressed correctly, to the health care providers themselves, to the hard-working staffers, and on out into the community, inviting and including anyone and everyone who would like to help children heal, it's all a circle of energy.
It's the living, breathing pulse of a community that cares.
