The Cleanout

This past weekend was very productive with the help of Mr. Boulden, Mr. Welsh, Mr. Zaborsky, Mr. Curry, and Miss Curry. In a few days work, we cleaned up all of the debris from the demolition and picked up the dance floor and the carpet that was left behind. Our flooring is now ready for zebra mat placement and tile installation.

We also framed out the offices that visitors will see to the right of the workout floor when they come in. There are five: an introduction room, a student/instructor meeting room, storage room, a personal office, and a utility closet. We are so excited that we can finally see the image of ATA West Chester!

This past weekend was also filled with meeting the managers, workers, and owners of fellow storefronts in the shopping center. They all seem to be very excited that something new, like ATA Martial Arts, is coming into Bradford Plaza. They were extremely welcoming. We look forward to building lasting relationships with the shopping center as well as the entire West Chester community.

The Demolition

Today we started demolition on the school! We got more done than was expected thanks to the help of our good friends Miss Toni, Mr. Smith, Mr M and our main contractor, Mr. Boulden (Miss Boulden's dad). After today's work, most of the walls are knocked down! It was exciting to see how big 3200 square feet really is.

We were delighted and felt very welcomed today when we saw passersby in the shopping center pop their heads in our door to see what we were up to. All who stopped by were very excited to find out that ATA Martial Arts was coming into their area!

Our goals over the next few weeks are to clean up after today's demo, post "coming soon" signs in the windows, and to introduce ourselves to households, schools, and other businesses in the surrounding area. We learned a lot today about our space and are eager to learn even more as the next few weeks pass by before we are finally open and doing what we love to do....teach martial arts and life skills!

The Beginning

Allow us to introduce ourselves. Our names are Maria Boulden and Marc Jouan and we are martial artists from Newark, Delaware. We are recently engaged to each other and are in the process of opening up our own ATA(American Taekwondo Association) martial arts school! Having an ATA martial arts school of our own has been a goal(and dream) of ours for a long time and it is finally happening! Mr. Jouan has been training in martial arts for about 20 years and Miss Boulden has been training in martial arts for about 11. We teach all ages and levels of students. Teaching martial arts is an extremely rewarding career for us because you can have the opportunity to touch so many lives. Martial arts teaches confidence, respect, discipline, fitness, and of course self-defense. For more information about us, our website is http://www.atapennsylvania.com/.

Today we got the key to the door of our building and will begin introducing ATA to the town of West Chester next week! We have a lot of work to do on the inside of the building, but hopefully once our permits are cleared we will be ready to open shortly after. To the right of the post, you will see pictures of the building before our buildout. It used to be the home of a dancing school, hence the mirrors and dance floor. We are so excited to finally start putting our vision into reality and making this ATA's home!