The Hwa-Rang Foundation's mission is to provide martial arts training to children from low-income families who otherwise could not afford
such training.  Using the structure and ethics, of martial arts, the foundation seeks to develop self-esteem, self-control and self-reliance in these students, and ultimately develop young leaders who can come back and help out with these programs in the future.  The primary venue for this training is in after-school martial arts classes.  Using schools also simplifies the foundation's process for determining student eligibility as low income.  Essentially, the foundation uses the school's criteria for free and reduced lunches.

In 2005, on a budget of less than $2,000, the foundation was able to provide taekwon-do classes for more than 110 low-income children, and
uniforms, promotion test fees and tournament fees for 30 students.It must be acknowledged that the foundation achieved this level in
cooperation with the Portland Public School District, Portland Parks and Recreation, the Multnomah County SUN Program and Portland Impact.

During the past year, the foundation has provided teachers and training at Buckman and Astor Elementary Schools, Portsmouth Middle
School, Roosevelt High School and the St. Johns Community Center.

Fundraising

An important event for the foundation was the granting in February of tax-exempt 502(c)(3) status by the IRS, which should enhance the
foundation's ability to raise funding.

Revenues were raised in three ways:  1) an annual tournament whose profits went to the foundation, 2) small scale activities such as car
washes that involved the benefiting students, and 3) donations from individuals and companies.
Tournament:  A two-day tournament was held in August at the School of Traditional Taekwon-do Belmont St. do-jang.  After expenses (for trophies, medals and supplies), proceeds netted $1,013.15.  Students who were recipients of foundation aid were charged half price for the tournament ($12.50).

Car washes, etc.  In May and June, two car washes were held in North Portland in which students in the Hwa-Rang programs washed cars.  In addition, the middle and high school students worked at the Burgerville in St. Johns for an evening, for which Burgerville donated a percentage of that day's proceeds to the foundation.  Total amount raised from these events was:   $550.

Donations: Aside from tournament fees and car washes,  one business and several individuals donated money to the foundation in 2005, totaling $965.  They were:

 Pratt & Larson Tile   $500.00
 Teresa Morales   $150.00
 Anne Hargens   $150.00
 Vance Perry/Fran Barton  $110.00
 Dr. Bruce Birk   $100.00
 
 Isabel Perry      $35.00
 Kris Murray      $30.00

In addition, Valerie Iven donated several kicking targets to the programs in North Portland, valued at $70.

The foundation and its board of directors greatly appreciate these generous gifts.

In the coming year, the foundation will explore the option of writing requests to local foundations for grants.
 

Programs

Buckman Elementary School:  Buckman, in Southeast Portland, has a very diverse student body with a wide range of income levels.  It was one of the first schools to participate in the SUN program and has had an after school taekwon-do class for five years.  SUN, through the non-profit Portland Impact, collects tuition from students and pays the instructors.  Scholarships are available for students who cannot afford to pay tuition.  In this setting, the Hwa-Rang Foundation pays for promotion test fees ($35), uniforms ($20) and half of tournament fees (ranging from $20 to $35).  The Buckman taekwon-do program is the most popular SUN program at the school, with more than 50 students participating during the past year..  Instructors are Jessica Ruch, head instructor; and assistants Nancy Huynh and Lauren Mason.

In keeping with the second goal of the Hwa-Rang Foundation—developing leaders who will come back and help out at their schools—one student this year from Buckman has done just that.  Kolton Stevens, age 10, now attends classes at the main School of Traditional Taekwon-do in Portland, but having attained the rank of brown belt, also assists at the Buckman SUN classes.

Total number of promotion test fees paid: 6
Total number of uniforms purchased:  4
Total number of tournament fees paid:  4

Portsmouth Middle School:  Portsmouth, in North Portland, is also funded primarily through the SUN program. In its second year, the Portsmouth after school class drew a total of 35 students and there currently are 18 enrolled (student turnover is increased by the fact that several students graduated from middle school in June).. Unlike Buckman, the students come from predominantly low-income families, thus requiring more assistance for promotion tests and uniforms.  Instructor at Portsmouth is Elaine Powell-Ascroft.  Ms. Ascroft has been assisted by three of her students who have attained the rank of blue belt:  David Cortes, Meyee Cha and Meng Cha.

Total number of promotion test fees paid:  13
Total number of uniforms purchased: 3
Total number of tournament fees paid:  1

Astor Elementary School:  Astor is also in North Portland and has a mix of both affluent and low income students.  It is not, however, a SUN program school.  This was the first attempt by the Hwa-Rang Foundation to establish an after-school program on its own. This meant that in addition to promotion test fees and uniforms, the foundation would also have to pay rent to the school ($165 per quarter) and pay the instructor's salary (at $15 per hour).  The instructors were Ms. Powell-Ascroft and Ms. Ruch.

The plan was that students who qualified for free lunch at the school would get free tuition, students who qualified for reduced lunch cost would pay half of the full tuition and all other students would pay full tuition.  It was expected that if each of these student groups constituted a third of the class, tuition would cover the bulk of the costs.  This did not occur.  Of the 33 students who signed up for classes, all but four were on either free or reduced lunch, mostly free lunch, thus requiring more subsidy from the foundation than expected.  The Astor program started in January of 2005 and was suspended when the school year ended.  Both of the instructors were feeling overwhelmed by their teaching loads (and other jobs) and requested fewer assignments.  The foundation decided to put its resources into programs that were easier to fund at this time.  It is hoped that an after-school program at Astor or another North Portland elementary school can be established within the next two years.

Total number of promotion test fees paid: 1
Total number of uniforms purchased: 1
Total number of tournament fees paid: 1

Roosevelt High School:  Roosevelt is in North Portland and generally receives graduates of Portsmouth, among other middle schools.  It is one of the poorest and academically lowest ranked high schools in Portland.  Over the course of the past year, 22 students participated in an after school program that was initiated by administrators at the school, yet there were fewer than 10 students during any one term.  During the fall term, there were seven students enrolled and typically two or three attending class on any given day.  The Hwa-Rang Foundation hasn't studied why enrollment was so fickle at the high school level when the same person, Elaine Powell-Ascroft, was the head instructor there. It may simply be that teenagers in high school have other priorities.  As a result of low attendance and the availability of the nearby St. Johns Community Center program, classes at Roosevelt were suspended at the end of 2005.

Total number of promotion test fees paid: 3
Total number of uniforms purchased: 2
Total number of tournament fees paid: 2

St. Johns Community Center:  This center provides a host of recreational activities for both children and adults in North Portland, and for a very low cost.  Ms. Powell-Ascroft began twice-a-week taekwon-do classes at the center during the summer of 2005 to give the students in the North Portland after school programs a chance to continue practicing taekwon-do while school was out.  The classes were popular and drew adults as well as children (some being the parents of the children in the after-school programs).  Now the St. Johns center includes students who used to be in the Astor and Roosevelt programs and who still are at Portsmouth.  Currently, there are 42 students enrolled in taekwon-do classes and six classes offered a week.

Total number of promotion test fees paid: 3
Total number of uniforms purchased: 6
Total number of tournament fees paid: 6
 

It should be noted that at the beginning of this report, it was stated that the Hwa-Rang Foundation paid for promotion test fees, uniforms and tournament fees for 30 students in 2005.  Yet adding up the individual programs yields a greater number than that.  Many of the students promoted more than once and attended more than one tournament, and that is why the numbers are larger.
 

Board of Directors

At the beginning of 2005, the foundation's first secretary-treasurer, Erin Wallace, resigned because of increased workload at her company.  Having been involved with non-profit organization before, she shepherded the Hwa-Rang Foundation's applications for IRS recognition until the tax-exempt status was approved.  With her departure, Fran Barton was named secretary-treasurer and Vance Perry was added to the board to replace Ms. Wallace.  In October, the board was expanded to five members after a search of candidates who had both non-profit and martial arts experience.  The two new members are Melissa Lindsay and Isaac Willis III.