Special Award from Laval's Sports and Leisure Association

Early this week Sifu Alain, owner of the Laval School, received an award for his contribution in helping people with disabilities including Deafness, Autism and Blindness.

The Association for Regional Sports and Leasure of Laval recognized his efforts after seeing a news report of him working with kids having disabilities.

Surprisingly, Sifu Alain's school was the only school of it's kind offering such services to the kids of Laval.

The Association surveyed other sport facilities with such a program to no avail.






















Sifu Alain's work with these kids give the parents of those children much happiness knowing their kids can have a chance to interact and learn martial arts like all the other kids.

Programs like these are crucial to making disabled kids feel good about themselves, boosting their confidence and lifting their level of self-esteem.

The benefits of martial art training extends far beyond the basic punching and kicking one might expect from training in one of our schools.

As in Sifu Alain's case, his martial art practice planted a seed in him to better himself and what better way to pass it on than to help bring awareness to this lack of fun, challenging activities for disabled or handicapped kids.

Getting involved in his community is a testament to Sifu Alain's character and willingness to help spread the benefits of martial arts training.

I'm sure you will continue to help inspire kids to become all they can be and offering them a source of motivation for years to come.

Continue leading by example, I'm proud of you.

Sibok Martin

Patenaude Kung-Fu gives hope to Autistic kids

Does your child have ADD, ADHD, Aspergers, or suffer from a mild case of Autism? Are you feeling a bit discouraged and in need of some help?

If so read on, the following story will inspire and offer some hope to struggling families.

At our Laval Kung-Fu School you have Sifu Alain Garofalo who's up to any challenge and will go out of his way to help any child in need of guidance, training, discipline, or social skills.

He's been working with 4 kids recently, some for 1 month and some up to 1 year and their progress has been remarkable, so impressive it caught Jean Lajoie's attention, a reporter for one of Quebec's biggest television station, TQS.

He really wanted to know what all the hype was about.

They stayed and filmed the classes and drills we do for about an hour and a half.

The parents of the kids were present and pretty emotional when they were put on camera.

They just can't believe the positive change in their kids behaviour and attitude.

One child is deaf and the other 3 are autistic. Most of the parents share the same story:

"My child had no friends because he was different"
"He's very shy and unsure of himself"
"He gets teased alot"
"Most kids judge him before getting to know him"
"Some daycares don't know how to handle my child".

Just heart wrenching stories that no child should have to go through in his life. Our goal is to make sure every child has the respect, confidence and constructive social interaction that every 9 or 12 year old should have. Most of our students are either referred by a friend or they searched us up on the web or through yellow pages.

What they thought was going to be a place where they can burn some energy and get fit, which is true but it turned out there was way more to Patenaude Kung-Fu than Punches and Kicks.

It's amazing what a positive environment can do, where they can progress at their own pace while still feeling like they're part of a group, a team if you will.

The training brings out the very best in them and without a doubt affects their school work, family life, social skills and grades simultaneously.

Some of the reasons for this quick development are total concentration and modeling. The kids need to be totally focused during class and when something is fun and challenging it's not hard to get that kind of attention.

You need positive role models and especially our kids nowadays, the Sifu is there to guide the kids and help them achieve their goals.

The biggest issue you'll find today is kids need more Self-Esteem. You start with easy steps, things they can accomplish easily, and this takes on a snow ball affect that leads to unshakeable confidence in their physical abilities, speaking in public, and trying new things.

The report airs on October 29th, 5:20 pm on the TQS Station, tune in to see the kids live in action and hear the parents giving their views on their child's development.

Take Care,

Sibok Martin