Gilroy
– When Tobias Farmer, owner of Roks Tae Kwon Do Masters Studio
in Gilroy, started learning the martial arts 35 years ago his
family could not afford the lessons.
”
We were poor,
”
said Farmer.
”
So my instructor let me sweep, mop and do other things around
the studio to pay my tuition.
”
By Marc Hopkins Special to the Dispatch
Gilroy – When Tobias Farmer, owner of Roks Tae Kwon Do Masters Studio in Gilroy, started learning the martial arts 35 years ago his family could not afford the lessons.
“We were poor,” said Farmer. “So my instructor let me sweep, mop and do other things around the studio to pay my tuition.”
Farmer never forgot that opportunity. When he opened his studio six years ago, he began offering lessons for free to those who could not afford them. He also started a uniform exchange program where parents could turn in used uniforms to get discounts on new ones, and then would give the old uniform to a student in need.
“It became tradition, a badge of honor, to hand down a uniform, like the old masters used to hand down their belts when they earned a new one,” Farmer said.
About five years ago, the studio became a part of Project Action, a Nationwide program to help lower income and at-risk kids have an opportunity to learn martial arts.
Through local fundraisers and other events, the program raises enough money for the studio to cover its costs.
To become a part of Project Action the parent completes a short form. Then the parent and student must sign a six-month contract stating that they will come to every lesson, participate and fulfill obligations that “are about education and life, which include focus, control, balance, commitment and follow through,” Farmer explained.
In order to advance to the next belt and stay in the program, students must turn in a form completed by their teachers and mentors.
“Each student is different, so if there’s a problem we find out what it is and work it out. If it is homework we help them find a tutor or they come to the studio and sit until their homework is completed,” Farmer said.
Nine-year-old Julianne Guevara was once a paying student, but when her father got injured at work and they could no longer afford the lessons Farmer told her mother, Elaine, about Project Action. Elaine said it has been great to watch Julianne “grow in a positive way.”
“Julianne is very shy, and while she is healthy she is not in the best shape,” her mother continued, “It has all been very positive. When she thinks she can’t do it they all support her and then on the way home when she proudly says ‘I did it,’ it almost brings a tear to my eye.”
But these special students are not the only ones working to earn their way, Farmer says all the students “have to prove they want it. We do not just give it to them. We make them earn it – sometimes they teach other students, sometimes we clean, sweep and take out garbage as a class, but everyone gives back.”
