St. Paul Karate-Do instructor Calvin Leckie was honoured with the instructor of the year award from Genbukai Canada last weekend.
The award names Leckie as the best karate instructor within Genbukai Canada throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C.
“It’s quite meaningful. It’s inspirational, it makes me feel like keeping at it and getting right back in front of the class and keeping the students working,” Leckie said, adding that the award is just as much for his students as it is for himself. “It’s about the students, it’s like any other instruction, the instructor is only a small part of it, it’s the students who make the school.”
Last weekend, 16 of Leckie’s students from St. Paul traveled to Lloydminster to take part in some seminars hosted by Genbukai International chief instructor Fumio Demura, which Leckie said was “inspirational and a lot of fun” for his students.
“He comes to Canada once a year to conduct a seminar series,” he said.
The weekend also saw local martial artist and student of Leckie, Deanna Michaels, receive the award for student of the year. Leckie said that Michaels is an exemplary student, and she shows it through her dedication in and out of classes.
“Every year each club chooses one student of the year. That was presented last weekend to Deanna Michaels from St. Paul,” he said. “She was recognized for all of her work around the karate school, even beyond the regular classes.”
On Monday evening, the St. Paul Karate-Do held its annual wind up at the karate centre. The event featured a number of karate demonstrations and a mini-tournament. For further coverage of the St. Paul Karate-Do year-end wind up, look to next week’s edition of the Journal.
