Alabama Youth Build Project - Interviews with youth and counselor

This is a 4 min video that contains an interview with Youth and Volunteers at Youth Build / HERO.  I want to thank Coach Tom Callos, who was instrumental in guiding me and UBBT members to step out of the dojo and get to work in the world.  I also would like to thank Pam Dorr, who is the executive director of HERO Housing, for being such a great mentor and host.

It is DONE...the fundraiser total!

WoW! This sure has been one exciting project! Mr. Laramie and I just returned from Alabama (Sunday) and have so many stories, experiences, photos and videos to share. 

Here's a quick recap on our trip.

I arrived in in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday and Mr. Laramie arrived on Thursday.  Once we arrived, we traveled by car to Greensboro and connected with everyone else at the Hero Housing location (an unused restaurant).  Wednesday night we met others and learned about what we were to do for the next few days. Thursday morning (7am) we began with coach Tom Callos leading us in a warm up, meditation and some martial arts training. We then headed over to the construction site by 8:30am to begin our construction phase, which we continued through to Saturday.  In the between hours of the day, we were in contact with dozens of other martial artists and Hero housing co-operators.  We were given the opportunity to learn about the community and even do interviews.

Please, look forward to footage and photos of our 'hands on' project over the next several weeks.

I've said it to many people in person, I've said it on Facebook, on this blog as well as many of my other blogs, but I don't think I'll truly be able to fully thank everyone who have been so wonderful and supportive in this fundraiser.  Thank you so much!  Although I am surprised with how well we did,  I'm not surprised that we met our goal...after all, I simply followed the Black Belt Success formula (See, it really DOES work!)

1) Know what you want
2) Have a plan
3) Have a successful coach
4) Take Consistent Action
5) Review your Progress
6) Renew your Goal

Initially, we launched our fundraiser on January 1st, 2011 with a goal to raise $2,000.  I thought it was ambitious and would certainly give us a run for our money.  Well, my friends, I am proud to tell you that on the eve of our Alabama departure our total contributions raised for HERO Housing is $2,230!

So it seems, 'I can always do better than I think I can,' isn't only applicable to white belts...

Respectfully,
Peter Liciaga

Master Liciaga creates website for Black History Museum

Last week while doing a communtiy house/school building project in Greensboro, Alabama with the HERO organization, I got the opportunity to meet and interview Mrs. Theresa Burroughs. Mrs. Burroughs is a civil rights foot soldier that worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the founder of the Safehouse Black History Museum in Greensboro.

After the interview, Mrs. Burroughs asked me (me and the UBBT / team 8) to not forget her and the work to build the black history museum.

Will I not only share the story of Mrs. Burroughs and the Black History Museum, but we have plans to incorporate a lesson plan to teach young people (and old) about civil rights.

Please visit our site at http://flavors.me/safehousemuseum

Master martial arts teacher creates video for Safe House Black History Museum

Education activist and UBBT member, Peter Liciaga ( http://www.peterliciaga.org ) interviews the Rural Studio builders that are renovating the Safe House Black History Museum in Greensboro, Alabama. Mr. Liciaga was down in Greensboro with over 60 master martial artist and their students to help build a school in partnership with Pam Dorr and the H.E.R.O. organization.

Alabama House Building Project - Master Liciaga interviews Ms. Geogia

Alabama Building Project - Day Two

My first day in Alabama - Building Project

Here is a quick video of where we will be living for the next couple of days while we work on building a school in Greensboro, Alabama for the ultimate black belt test.

Moorestown Photographer Martial Artist heads to Alabama

Visit Mr. Laramie's website HERE

Robert Laramie, Moorestown resident, professional photographer and a black belt at Dinoto Karate Center, is heading down to Greensboro, Alabama this week to join Master Peter Liciaga as part of a team of master instructors and their students as they build a home for a senior citizen and help renovate a school. Mr. Laramie will not only help with the building, but will take his camera and document the whole experience. Look for a special edition book that will feature a collection of photographs from this incredible work.

Visit his blog to see some of his work: http://www.rjlphoto.com/RJLPhoto/Blog/Blog.html

Thank you Mr. Laramie for ALL your help, encouragement, support, and advice.

ALABAMA CALL FOR HELP!

Check out this video from my friend, Mr. Gary Engels. He is a Martial Artist from Wisconsin. Great Video!

Please help us meet our goal. Contribute HERE


Alabama Call For Help. from Gary Engels on Vimeo.

Please help us meet our goal. Contribute HERE

Alabama -- almost there!

In less than a week Peter Liciaga and Robert Laramie, black belts from Dinoto Karate Center in Mount Laurel NJ leave for Greensboro, Alabama!

Please help us meet our goal. Contribute HERE

Alabama Building Project, my buddy Nick shares...

Alabama's Building Project just became more EXCITING!!!!

I just recieved an exciting message (via video) from our Alabama director Pam Dorr (HERO Project).

We, the Ultimate Black Belt Testers, will not only help with Ms. Georgia's home, but we are going to help re-build a SCHOOL!!!

I am so excited about this trip...and it get's better and better as we get closer to our start date!!!

Here's a tap on the shoulder reminder to everyone who pledged to help (a big thank you to you all) -- I need you to send in your pledges asap!!! Time is going by FAST!!!! yes? You can safely make your contribution HERE via our secure online contribution. again, a big thank you to you all.

~ peter liciaga

When I go to Alabama in April, I get to meet Theresa, the women featured in this film:

Ms. Georgia's House. We're Going to Greensboro, Alabama

The UBBT (Alabama) Movie.

Below is a movie of the 100's Ultimate Black Belt Test -- created by UBBT alumni and 100 member, Academy Award winning filmmaker, Nancy Walzog.

The UBBT Movie, Part 1

The Ultimate Black Belt Test! Master Liciaga actually training!

For you martial arts purest, here is a short video of Master Liciaga training. Everyone is welcome to visit Dinoto Karate Center Saturday mornings at 9:45am and watch Master Liciaga train. However, it's important to point out that it is not so much what you do on the mat that will make the greatest difference --it's what you do in the world!

Master Peter Liciaga, an instructor at Dinoto Karate Center in Mount Laurel NJ, is fully involved with the Ultimate Black Belt Test and in full support of the Alabama HERO home building project.

To find out more, go HERE

The Ultimate Black Belt Test

This is a movie of the 100's Ultimate Black Belt Test -- created by UBBT alumni and 100 member, Academy Award winning filmmaker, Nancy Walzog.  It is important to note that Master Peter Liciaga, an instructor at Dinoto Karate Center in Mount Laurel NJ is fully involved with the UBBT this year and in full support of the HERO Housing build.

To find out more, go HERE

From Me to My Friends…black belts build a house and more

From Me to My Friends…

On April 7, 2011 I will join between 50 and 100 martial arts master teachers and their students in the small southern town of Greensboro, Alabama. We will put on our work boots and gloves, and begin building a home for an elderly woman in need.

I am going to Greensboro because Martin Luther King traveled through there just weeks before his death. I am going there because teacher-architect Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee co-founded the famous Rural Studio in nearby Newbern. I am going there because of the classic book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men; because James Agee wrote about the people of Hale County and because Walker Evans carried his camera down Greensboro’s Main Street.

My friends and I are going there because community activist Pam Dorr lives there and heads The Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization (HERO). We are a group of karate, kung fu, aikido, taekwondo, tang soo do and jiu-jitsu teachers from New Jersey, Hawaii, California, Maine, and so many other more “tourist” or “convention” friendly places, come to Alabama to learn about a kind of martial arts mastery that project founder Tom Callos says is more relevant to teaching self-defense in today’s world that any kick, block or punch.

“Mastery, genuine mastery, is not found in the physical practice of the martial arts,”

states Callos, a 6th degree black belt,

“It is found in the way the practitioner uses, in the world, what he or she practices on the mat. To be a Master is to transcend the boundaries and borders of your subject and weave your work into the fabric of your community. This is what Mockbee did, what we experience when we read Agee, when we see the faces and places Evans captured in his photography, and what we hear when we listen to Reverend King today, 43 years after his death. These black belts are here to practice a kind of martial arts that transcends the dojo.”

For the last 7 years, Callos and his team, participants in The Ultimate Black Belt Test, have raised the funds for building materials, then provided the labor to build a number of projects in Greensboro. Two years ago they helped restore a Rosenwald School. The year before that they built a small house for a man who’s dwelling was becoming uninhabitable. While in Town the martial arts teachers have also toured local schools giving demonstrations, tutored local students in math and English, offered classes in diabetes education, anger management, and given self-defense classes to local women.

“People always ask me what does architecture, photography, building houses, and Martin Luther King have to do with the martial arts,” says Callos. “I tell them, everything. As a Master Teacher my life is my dojo --and everything is I do is a reflection on what I have learned and who I am as a person. This is the ultimate self-defense.”

The $2000 will be part of a $25,000 fundraising campaign that we will raise to build a home and help complete a number of small repairs needed by local Greensboro residents. Donations may be given on-line on my behalf at MLMA / LICIAGA / HERO HOUSING.

As part of my challenge for my 5^th degree master black belt, I will be putting my ability of inspiring, leading and motivating others to the test by my friends, you, to help me raise $2000 by April 1^st through crowd-funding.  If I could get at least 200 of you to contribute just $10 each I will reach my goal!

Thank you for your support. Please contact me for more information on the project and/or to offer assistance at 856-278-5282 --or e-mail me at pLiciaga at g mail.com.

Your friend,

Peter Liciaga

http://www.peterliciaga.org/

Ms. Georgia Flyer / HERO House Project

An Introduction