Press Coverage
IN THE SPOTLIGHT...
Kenneth Everett, Martial-Arts Instructor
Excerpts from ADAM TAYLOR/The News Journal (7/11/05)
Man reaches out to youths in Wilmington
WILMINGTON - Small successes. That’s what lifetime Wilmington resident Kenneth Everett said will turn the city’s deadly streets, where young men shoot one another
while dealing drugs on corners, into safe ones.
Everett is certainly doing his part. After shootings spiked late last year, the martial-arts instructor ramped up his free sessions at community centers in the city’s
poorest and most violent areas. His efforts peaked with a Stop the Violence Karate Tournament at Bancroft School in June. More than 150 youths, some as young
as 4 years old, participated.
“Many of these kids come from homes where there is no dad,” he said. “Some lack discipline and have trouble paying attention. But I don’t think a child is ever any
more focused than when someone is in front of them and they need to defend themselves.”
Marital arts does more than provide children with the ability to focus, Everett said. “It gives them a yard-stick for them to measure their decisions in the future,” he said. “The whole objective is to change their thinking.”
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Instructor Kenny Everett |
