Longtime Corner Brook taekwondo instructors, entrepreneurs, hang up their belts
CBC
Two of Corner Brook's most experienced martial arts instructors are calling it quits after two decades teaching at Bennett's Tae Kwon Do Academy.
Raymond and Dora Bennett are kicking off their retirement with some travel abroad before heading off to live in Ontario, where their adult children live.
Wednesday evening was the last time Raymond, 66, and Dora, 63, would appear as Master Raymond and Master Dora to instruct classes of kids and adults in taekwondo. It was a bittersweet night for the couple, with "a few tears at the end of the day," said Raymond.
"But it's been an awesome journey," he said.
Dora said retirement is a "double-edged sword."
"We're happy to be going, but we're going to miss a lot of the parents and the children because they become our family."
Raymond, a sixth-degree black belt, first practised taekwondo in Edmonton in the 1980s, before coming to Newfoundland — through Stephenville and Gander before settling in Corner Brook, where he founded Bennett's Tae Kwon Do Academy.
It was only a matter of time before Dora, 63 and a fifth-degree black belt, got engaged in martial arts herself.
"I was never sorry for getting into it," she said. "I loved it. I'm surprised I didn't get into it sooner."
Beyond the punching, kicking and physical fitness of taewkondo, Raymond and Dora Bennett have made a point of teaching their students good character. Discipline and respect are woven into the culture at Bennett's Tae Kwon Do Academy.
"They have to respect us, they have to respect their friends, their parents and themselves," said Dora.
Students' behaviour is monitored in the school and in the rest of their lives. According to Dora, bad behaviour in any aspect of life is not tolerated, and good behaviour is always recognized and rewarded.
"They understand. Those little brains, they're sinking this stuff in."
The Bennetts's last night teaching at the academy was buzzing. Dozens of kids and their parents came out to see their instructors one more time before retirement. Together they ran through movement drills and had playful competitions. Laughter and applause rang out in the wide open practice space on Premier Drive.
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