We've been pretty cautious over the past couple of years about a lot of things, one of them being growing the school. We did a few limited size new student classes while we were in Zoom and we've been inviting new students to do trial classes since we've been back in the dojo full time, but we haven't made a big deal about it. Part of it was because it's hard to learn a new skill over Zoom and we were limited in being able to make new students feel the Sun Dragon vibe and get them to embrace it when everything was virtual. And part of it was because there was a question mark at the end of every sentence during the pandemic, the only thing we could really plan for was uncertainty. And part of it was because we wanted to be able to focus on our current students and do all that we could to try to give them some consistency and hopefully a bit of fun, especially in those locked down days.
But, to quote Raising Arizona, these doors are gonna swing wide. It's not going to be a rush, we're still going to make sure that we're able to maintain our current student body, but as the pressure has diminished on our health care infrastructure, we've gotten more treatment options for those who get Covid, and the severity of recent iterations of Covid has decreased, it feels like the right time to start building for the future. That's not to say we're going to ignore the pandemic (more on that in the next section), but it does feel like the right time to get back to planning confidently for the future and welcoming anyone who's vaccinated and wants to train.
The vaccination part isn't going to change, that's one of the most important tools that we have in keeping severe Covid at bay. We're committed to the health of our community and the health of the individuals in our community, and vaccination is the base line, the foundation of all our other efforts. Since some of our students are immunocompromised or have other risk factors, the rest of us have to make sure we do all we can to keep them safe. In fact, I'm getting my second booster this morning as part of that commitment to the health of others. Over the last couple of months we've had a number or Covid cases in our student body and in our extended community and, up till now, I'm not aware of any transmission that's occurred in the dojo. You might be able to argue that we've been too careful at times, but you can't say that our efforts haven't worked.
So, if you know of anyone who's interested in training in any of our age groups (ages 6-100), please encourage them to contact us. They can get on the list for trial classes through this link: Karate Trial Class. Word of mouth has always been our best advertisement, so don't be shy, be a Shilpa (Shilpa Kerkar is legendary for her recruiting efforts, as many of you know!).
Sun Dragon is healthiest when it has students training at every level from beginners to sensei. Part of the process of learning Seido involves learning to help and partner with others and learning to pass on what you've learned, whether by teaching or by modeling what it means to train in Seido. And you can't share if you don't have anyone to share with.
We'd love to welcome your friends and your childrens' friends to Sun Dragon.