By Robb Fenton
The Lloydminster Karate Club celebrated a milestone last September and honoured the occasion with a seminar this past weekend.
The club hit the quarter century mark in Lloydminster and hosted a large gathering of karate clubs from both Alberta and Saskatchewan to celebrate.
“It was our 25th anniversary. Our club has been going for 25 years last September and the chief instructor of the organization, Fumio Demura, was there. He comes up every year when we run these seminars for students all over Saskatchewan and Alberta,” local club sensai Cam Steuart said. “So this was a special opportunity for those students to get together and train under his guidance.”
Having someone with Demura’s resume and experience was a big thrill to everyone in attendance.
“It’s really important. In the karate world he’s really well known and famous. He’s one of the first Japanese karate instructors in North America, so he’s very well known,” Steuart said of Demura. “When someone from a high level comes in, it just picks the whole place up. And of course he has a wealth of information to share with everybody. It’s probably the most important thing that happens with our club over the course of the year.”
Steuart stressed how important it is to realize the Lloydminster members are one of many karate groups across the world.
“I think it’s great, it’s inspirational. It makes them realize they are part of a worldwide organization,” Steuart explained. “We do our training day-to-day in Lloydminster, that’s one thing, but when you’re exposed to things like this, or when we go to his seminars in California, it gives everyone a chance to see they’re part of something bigger. I find it very important for the students.”
The turnout was great for the seminar, packing one of the fieldhouses at the Common Wealth Centre.
“We couldn’t have handled too many more. We had about 350 people. It was all ages, sizes, belt ranks, it was a really good day,” he said.