The 11th Annual Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention

Leveraging Our Power for Social Good

We are always humbled by the incredible work our clients do in their communities, and we love sharing their inspiring stories with you. Today we’re going to tell you about the 11th Annual Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention, led by martial arts business consultant, Tom Callos.

Tom’s Story:

On a daily basis, Tom runs The 100, a consulting program that coaches martial artists on running their schools sustainably, intelligently, ethically, and profitably. Tom believes our real power as business leaders is in our ability to affect change within our communities. He encourages all his clients to think beyond the mat to find ways to make the world better through their unique talents.Because of Tom’s inclination to serve others, he has often been a part of some wonderful community activism programs. However, the one with the biggest reach and longest run is the Annual Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention.

The Event:

The Annual Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention is a crowd funded experiential learning event that will bring together more than 100 martial arts teachers and black belts from across the county. There will be classes and workshops covering school management, marketing, program curriculum, teaching, and more.

But the real learning and magic in the event is the gift of giving back to the community. This year the group of attendees will build a bakery and wood-fired pizza oven for the town of Greensboro, Ala., providing fresh bread for a town that hasn’t had a bakery since the 1930’s.

To attend, each participant is tasked with bringing a minimum of $1000 in donations for building supplies. All participants will sleep on mats in a gym and eat community meals that are provided by local churches or cooked in the kitchen of the gym.

This event is the brainchild of Tom Callos and nonprofit director and activist, Pamela Dorr. For the last decade the two have been working together to use Greensboro as an experiential training ground for martial arts teachers, who always participate in construction projects as a part of the program. Tom Callos calls, it “the ultimate black belt test.”

Throughout the years Tom and Pam’s combined efforts resulted in the collection of more than $250,000 in cash donations, the completion of more than 20 building projects, and the delivery of 40,000 hours of volunteer labor. But the impact doesn’t stop there. Each Alabama Martial Arts Build participant leaves inspired to bring the passion and spirit of giving back home to their own communities.

We are Honored to Participate:

We are excited to announce that we will be joining forces with Tom, Pam and the team for this year’s building event, which will be held April 8-11, 2015. Zen Planner will send employees to help with the building project and contribute to it financially. This is going to be an exciting event, so stay tuned for more updates and reports from the event.

For more information on the event, visit the Alabama Martial Arts Build-Vention 2015 site or contact Tom Callos at tomcallos@gmail.com or by phone at 530-903-0286.

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