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By Amanda Sotelo
Mia Escamilla recently spent a Saturday morning at South Padre Island for more than just fun in the sun.
The 12-year-old brown belt joined her martial arts team from Metamorphix Martial Arts in Harlingen for an Earth Day Adopt-a-Beach cleanup.
“This was my way, our way, to help our community by keeping our beaches clean,” she said. “Being able to serve our community, while helping our environment is a good feeling.”
As an aspiring martial artist, her goal is to make this world a better place and she said her instructor and owner of Metamorphix Martial Arts Anastacia Ortiz is instilling these values in all her students.
“Not only does our instructor (Ortiz) teach us martial arts and trains us to improve our techniques and forms, but she helps us all around,” said Escamilla. “She loves helping others and taking care of our environment and she is teaching us that being a black belt is more than just a color, it’s about being good people and making a difference in our community.”
Ortiz, who has been training for nearly a decade, said she combines a variety of teachings into her martial arts curriculum, and serving the community is only one aspect of each students’ training.
“This was a memorable experience for all of us in a sense that we did it together; we came together for a cause bigger than us,” said Ortiz. “Through our fellowship we learned new things about each other and our region. I was also able to include mentorship conversations with my students and come together with their families, who were also in attendance.”
Leading mentorship conversations alongside Ortiz on the day of the beach cleanup was Master Instructor Rick Ramirez from Grey Belt Alliance Martial Arts, a Taekwondo school in San Benito.
Ortiz and Ramirez collaborate often to benefit their students and their training.
“We really appreciated him joining us for this event,” she said. “He is a great role model and embodies the black belt principles that we strive to teach our students and I think it’s important that our students see us come together as a team although we both lead different schools.”
The Metamorphix team was able to collect several bags of trash that included plastic bottles, bottle caps, among other debris, in addition to plastic eggs, remnants of recent Easter celebrations.
“This journey that we’re on – the quest to a black belt – really relates to the qualities that we must embody as individuals such as integrity, courtesy and indomitable spirit,” said Ortiz. “It’s important that through my teachings, my students also have real-world experiences because what they learn, they will carry with them through life.”
And because the beach is a healing place for Ortiz and has a special place in her heart, she will make an Earth Day Adopt-a-Beach cleanup an annual tradition for her students, in addition to the other community service events she will set up throughout the year.
Metamorphix Martial Arts is located at 114 N. A St. in downtown Harlingen and offers youth martial arts and mentorship programs for children 4-14 years old, including teen girl’s and women’s self-defense and women’s kickboxing classes.
For more information on programs offered at Metamorphix Martial Arts call 956-752-8443, email [email protected] or visit them on social media @metamorphixma.
