"Gerry Blanck, who taught karate in Pacifc Palisades for 43 years, was unsure if he would return after flames tore through his studio. He was teaching about 70 students - less than half his old roster - in a temporary space in Santa Monica. He is now back in the Palisades, thanks to a grant from Build Back Pali, a nonprofit started by three teenage boys."
"Blanck, who taught in Pacifc Palisades for 43 years before the fire, was unsure whether he would be able to return after flames tore through his Marquez Avenue karate studio and the apartment he shared with his daughter, who manages the business. Most of his students lost their homes, and he didn't know if enough of them would return to the Palisades to keep the doors open. He quietly worried about money, even as he resumed classes in Santa Monica, where another sensei let him borrow space."
"In January, Blanck got a lifeline: a $50,000 grant from Build Back Pali, a nonprofit started by three teenage boys - including a former student - to help small businesses return to the community. This month, Blanck began a three-year lease on the roughly 1,200-square-foot new space about a mile from his old dojo, in an unscathed strip mall in the Highlands neighborhood that includes an Italian restaurant, a wine shop and a Starbucks."
"Soon, the sounds of boards being kicked and mannequins being punched will echo from a former Pilates studio on Palisades Drive. Soon, karate students - toddlers, teens and grown-ups - will fill the space, heeding the shouted instructions of their silver-haired sensei, Gerry Blanck. That's because, soon, the Gerry Blanck Martial Arts Center, a small but much-loved business that burned in the Palisades fire 15 months ago, will return home. "Everybody's freaking out. They're so happy," Blanck, 71, said of his students and their families. "I always wanted to come back.""
Gerry Blanck taught karate in Pacific Palisades for 43 years until a fire destroyed his studio and the apartment he shared with his daughter. He resumed teaching in Santa Monica with about 70 students, fewer than half his former roster, while many students lost their homes and he worried about whether the business could survive. In January, he received a $50,000 grant from Build Back Pali, a nonprofit created by three teenage boys to help small businesses return. He began a three-year lease for a new 1,200-square-foot space near his old dojo and started private lessons, with plans for the full martial arts center to reopen soon.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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