Community Corner

Black Belt Success at Personal Best Karate

Local students among the 63 earning the honor.

Press Release:  Easton Ma – Celebrating their 20th year of teaching students of all ages, Personal Best Karate promoted 63 students to the ranks of first, second and third degree Black Belt on Friday, January 28th. Nearly 1,200 people packed the Oliver Ames High School auditorium for an evening of choreographed martial arts performances and fun. In addition to the students graduating, Personal Best promoted their first Master Instructor, Saeed Mansour, to 4th degree Black Belt. Mr. Mansour started with Personal Best as a young student himself nearly twenty years ago. Also joining in on the list of promotions was founder, Christopher Rappold, as he was promoted to 6th degree Black Belt and was presented this honor by his long time Sensei, Master John Chung. 

 It was a great night celebrating the achievements of the Personal Best graduates. Receiving a Black Belt is a worthy accomplishment that takes a steady commitment over many years of dedication.  In addition to commemorating their students, Carol Lucas, retired President of West Side Benevolent, was honored for 35 years of dedicated service. West Side and Personal Best Charity have been collaborating for many years organizing the deliveries of Thanksgiving dinners to local families in need.

As part of the requirement to receiving a black belt in the Personal Best Karate School each graduating class selects one community service project. This class participated in the 2010 Turkey Brigade raising nearly $40,000 to feed Thanksgiving dinners to over 2,000 needy families in the area.  The students raised pledge money and ran in a Turkey Trot in the fall towards this endeavor.  Later, at Thanksgiving the students and their families delivered the turkey dinners door-to-door.

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“It seems that more and more families are recognizing the value of training together”, said Rappold. “Many of our graduates are sharing the training at Personal Best along side other family members. Moms, Dads, sons, and daughters are finding that this is a program the whole family can experience and enjoy together.  In fact, at this graduation there was an entire family graduating to their first degree black belt.”

Personal Best Karate has four locations in the area: Norton, Foxboro, Easton, and Norwood. The curriculum is a combination of martial arts, character education, and charitable service that instills values and coaches a student to become physically and mentally stronger while helping others.

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Norton First Degree Black Belts: Zachary Andreasen, Nikolas Dorgan, Joshua Griffin (Mansfield), Colten Hughes, John Lavanchy, Quinn McAlear, Jake McNeill (Mansfield), Adam Smargon (Mansfield), Zachary Smargon (Mansfield)

Norton Second Degree Black Belts: Mackenzie Baratta (Mansfield), Molly Doherty (Mansfield), Elizabeth Keay, Devin Maughn (Mansfield), Emily Stapleton (Mansfield), Charlotte Vogel (Mansfield)

Foxboro First Degree Black Belts: Natasha Alisandratos (Mansfield), Robert Crew (Mansfield), Aynslie D’Avanzo, Courtney D’Avanzo, Marc D’Avanzo, Mic D’Avanzo, Eddie Dring, Brian Grenier, Jim Grenier, Julia Hill (Mansfield), Matthew Hjort, George Key, Matthew Murphy, RJ Sellon (Mansfield), Danielle Topale, Elyse Tripp (Mansfield)

Foxboro Second Degree Black Belts: Stephen Brown, Jordan Connors, Matthew Iandoli (Mansfield), Lauren Melton (Mansfield), Patrick Moore (Mansfield) , Susan Roberts (Mansfield), Stanley Widak.

Easton First Degree Black Belts: Thomas Anderson, Alex Barnett, Christopher Courteau, Michael DeFao, Jesse Deveau, Xavier Gomes, Rishi Gupta, Derick Hanscom, Olivia Hanscom, Timothy Kemp, Peter Kilmartin, Jack Lally, Maeve Lally, Ariana Waldorf

 Easton Second Degree Black Belts: Jessica Bethoney, Jacob DeMoura, Mark Leonard, Anna Loewald, Thomas Nguyen

Easton Third Degree Black Belts: Kristina Bloomer, Brendan McQueeney, Tyler Springhetti

Norwood First Degree Black Belts: Patrick Danahy, Kimberly Leal-Zapasnik, Griffin Ownjazayeri


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