Martial Arts groups aiming for One Million Kicks for charity at The Square Tallaght
By Aura McMenamin
MARTIAL arts groups from Tallaght are attempting to break a massive record by achieving 1,000,000 kicks at a martial arts demonstration this Saturday.
The One Million Kicks for Tallaght charity initiative is being organised by the Martial Arts Alliance Tallaght (MAA Tallaght), who have a target of €10,000 for Daniel’s Voyage and the Tallaght branch of youth mental health charity, Jigsaw.
The competition will see kids from various martial arts clubs around the country continuously kick for six hours on Saturday in the Square, Tallaght, from 9am to 6.30pm.
The local clubs include Tallaght Martial Arts (MA), Black Panther Kickboxing and MA in Brookfield, South Dublin Taekwondo, Firhouse Taekwondo, SBG D24 and GRASP MA.
Dave Heffernan runs Tallaght Martial Arts alongside Martin Bannon.
He explained the idea behind the newly-formed Martial Arts Alliance and Saturday’s event.
He said: “I wanted the [local] martial community to come together – we’re all kind of separated.
“I thought this event would capture people’s imagination and the kids to come together for something other than themselves and their own costs of competing and travelling.”
According to Dave, all the money raised will be split evenly between Daniel’s Voyage and Jigsaw in Tallaght.
Local martial arts clubs are spreading the word for this event by nominating people to show off their best kick for Tallaght.
MAA Tallaght are asking people, martial artist or not, to record a kick of any kind, put the video online and nominate two other people.
The martial arts demo and record attempt will take place in The Square shopping centre on January 20 and donations can be made through the group’s bucket collection on the day or their GoFundMe page here: https://www.gofundme.com/1-million-kicks-for-tallaght
