It's founders month.

Let's talk about what that means here on the ATA Nation podcast.

Let's get started.

Sir.

I will live with perseverance in the spirit of taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself, and to become a black belt leader.

Welcome to the AtA Nation podcast.

Ladies and gentlemen, students, instructors, parents of song arm Taekwondo.

Welcome back to the Ata Nation Podcast.

This is episode 127, and I am your host, senior master Zach Hayden.

I don't know if you guys have followed us on social media, but I was lucky enough to go to ATA headquarters last week and get to interview some people there for the podcast and for some other cool things coming up.

And it was just really awesome.

If you guys haven't been to headquarters, make sure you check it out.

We've got some interviews from there coming up.

And actually, that brings us to today's interview.

We have the interview of the century.

Maybe not the century, but we are talking with Grandmaster Tammy Harvey Stauber.

And if you don't know, this is the ATA's first female grandmaster.

Amazing martial arts.

But we're specifically talking about the Hu Lee Scholarship foundation and founder's month.

October is founders month.

We're going to talk about a little bit in the interview, and then we'll recap at the very end to make sure you know what you can do during Founders month to make a difference and continue to spread the vision of eternal Grandmaster.

So let's get right to the interview now.

Special guest interview, ATA Nation.

We have with us the ATA's very first female grandmaster, Grandmaster Tammy Harvey Stauber.

How are you today, ma'am?

I'm good, sir.

I'm doing great.

How is, how is the, the grandmaster title?

Does it take some getting used to?

It really.

It really does.

It really does.

And I've always, since I made master, I just always went by Master Tammy.

And so for now, that name change, that's probably one of the hardest because I'm just so used to master Tammy.

So to get used to that, it's taken some getting used to, but I like it.

Yeah, it's well deserved.

I know.

I'm sure it's a, you know, I mean, you came up through the times where it's, its eternal grandmaster was like, he was the only master.

I mean, you know, and then there were other masters, and then, and then he was the grandmaster, and then it was like, that's it.

That's it, you know.

Well, actually, you know, when I started, he was just Mister Lee, and we didn't even, it wasn't until 1978 when he was promoted to 8th degree.

And then at that point, we started calling him masterly.

And then it was, you know, as song on Taekwondo was formed and the way there was going to be one grand master x number of chief masters and down.

So the possibly the fact that I even have received that title is such an honor.

That's super cool.

And everybody's so excited.

I mean, just to have our first female grandmaster for it to be you, everybody's just so excited.

Well, thank you.

It just going through ceremony, it was very heartfelt.

I could feel the energy in the room and it was very emotional.

I am sure it was.

We are obviously here in the museum at headquarters, which is a great place to be.

And we're getting into Founders month, October.

And so thinking about this legacy from eternal Grandmaster Mister Lee to master Lee to eternal Grandmaster Lee, what does founders month mean to you?

Well, obviously, October 5 was when eternal grandmaster Lee passed away.

And so founders month, to be able to raise money for the Hu Lee foundation, just for me, it carries on his legacy.

Not that he has to have anything else to carry on his legacy, but, you know, his quote, today not possible, tomorrow possible was one of the whole reasons why he came up with the foundation in 1991 when it was established.

And to be able to give people the ability to get higher education that was so important to him.

And so, yeah, it's for me, personally, being able to be the director of the Hili foundation means.

It means a lot to me because for me, that's one way to continue to keep his light shining very bright.

And for a lot of people, they might not know exactly what the foundation does.

Um, you know, there's a lot of different things.

October is a busy month anyways, with lots of breast cancer awareness.

Pink melts the Huli foundation.

You know, we've got all kinds of holidays and stuff during October.

What specifically for those who might not know what the foundation does?

What, what do they do?

What do they raise money for?

We raise money to provide financial assistance to individuals that are going to an accredited college, junior college.

And now that we've got people going to being a part of Songam University, we're in the future, hopefully part of the Hu Lee foundation funds will be able to go to help those students that are a part of the Songam university.

But right now, we give out nine national scholarships.

Okay.

Okay.

And then, so when money is raised for the Hu Lee foundation, let's say that your school raises $150 of that money stays in your region.

Okay.

Only 25% of it comes to the national.

That goes to the national scholarships.

Excellent.

So for instructors that do, especially if you know that you've got a student that's graduating, I mean, it's.

And I don't think a lot of people realize the 75 25 split.

I think everybody thinks that it just all comes to the.

It does all come to the foundation.

Yeah, but it comes back out.

But it goes.

75% of it goes back out to your region.

And a couple of the people that have been awarded the regional scholarships were chief master Jean Kandriva's daughters.

Back when they were younger.

Shelby and Sabrina received a regional scholarship.

Senior master CJ Barrett in Texas received a regional.

Senior master Sean Barry in California received a regional scholarship.

Chief master Kevin Kaminsky in Pennsylvania.

Those people were all reciprocants of the Hu Lee foundation.

Wow.

And not one of the big national ones, but one of their regional.

Just regional.

Just regional.

And the regionals, depending on how much the region raises.

I mean, if the region raises a whole lot of money, sometimes the regional scholarship is bigger than some lower tier national scholarships.

Well, I know when we have hosted fundraisers at the end of the year, when they will get an email from the scholarship foundation, and they're like, hey, this is how much is going back to your region, which is so cool.

And I tell my students, we've had students that have gotten regional awards.

When we have a student going off to college, I'm always like, you got to apply.

You know, our region tries to raise money, and I'm like, the chances are pretty good you're going to get a couple, you know, some money.

And depending on how much we raise, you know.

Right.

Uh, you might pay for one or two college books, depending on, uh, sure.

And like I said, if.

When the regions.

And hopefully, you know, uh, when Covid hit that in 2020, you know, the.

The foundation had.

Was doing from the inception, had always kind of been on a rise.

Well, when 2020 hit, it just that kind of knocked the feet out.

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

And we're slowly starting to go forward.

And, you know, last year, we were right at 85,000.

That was through donations and board breakathons and the different activities I'm hoping and would like to reach just between now and December 55,055.

Yes, ma'am.

The 55th year anniversary, the 55,000.

And that sounds like that's a lot of money.

But if we had 55 licensees raise $1,000 in a board breakathon.

Yeah, we matched it.

We could do it.

No, problem.

And 55 licensees is not very many licensees.

Right.

And so, and I, you know, last year we had master Cordry and master Paul Mazzana both.

One of them was right.

A little over 2001 of them was 2800.

And so we awarded them black belts.

And so we will do that again this year when, if a licensee raises over $2,000 or more, then we'll award that licensee.

And then the people doing the breakathons or kick a thons, there's different prizes that are awarded to them individually.

Yes, ma'am.

But as a licensee, when you come on board and you participate and you're able to donate that, that amount of money to the foundation, then we want to recognize you also.

That's awesome.

So licensees are doing fundraisers now.

Let's say I'm just a student, and I'm, like, really motivated to raise some money.

Can I do something on my own?

Can I just donate money?

I go to a website somewhere.

How do I donate?

Absolutely.

There's an Huli memorial foundation website.

Okay.

And we've had that website for quite a while, and we're about to launch a new one, hopefully.

Hopefully in November.

But, yeah, you just go to the website and there's donate buttons everywhere on there.

Everywhere.

Click the donate button and there's like 25, 57,500, and then there's another.

Okay.

And so you can basically, you can donate as much or as less, you know, but there's, there's buttons for a specific amount, but then on the other, you can donate whatever your choice.

Maybe.

Maybe like $55.

That would be.

Yeah, $55.

A thousand members donate.

$55 maybe?

Could be.

That would be great.

You know, and, and then there's.

We also partner with, you know, we partner with chief Master Ingram Lee with the pink belt challenge, and a portion of her proceeds that, that she raises comes back to the foundation.

Okay.

And then, you know, not everywhere has Kroger's shopping centers, but anywhere that there is a Kroger's, if you have a rewards card, you can go in and choose your charitable donation, and then a portion of the sales will come back to the foundation.

Okay, so, like.

And that's.

That's such an easy way.

Yes.

Everybody's getting groceries.

Everybody's getting groceries.

And it's at Kroger's.

And we're looking to see, are there any other places out there that we could possibly partner with to where they just kick back to?

Yes, and then there are a lot of times employers have employee, employer match, and we do have people that every, you know, whether it's however their pay period.

But you know, twelve times a year we're getting a $25 or a $50 donation from that person and you know, you think about that.

$25?

Yeah, $25 a month.

Yeah.

That adds, really, really adds up.

And it's very easy, you know, and all the donations that are made or tax deductible.

So you can write that off.

And on this time of year, people are always looking at, you know, your taxes might be too high.

It's time to send some money to the scholarship foundation, help a kid that's doing going off to college.

You were mentioning song'I'm university.

We've got a lot of students now looking at song'I'm university.

If they earn a regional scholarship, I'm assuming they could probably use that for some of their songhom university.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

Once they are awarded their scholarship, you know, and there's, there's an application, they have to keep a certain grade point.

Everything has to be sent, you know, every semester it has to be sentence in.

It's just not like here would you, there's a blank check and what you, you know, but once they're awarded that money and their transcript is, you know.

Yeah.

The way it's what's required.

Yes.

Then they receive, they receive their money and.

Yeah, and so, yes, we would love to be able to be.

For me personally, I just believe people who are going to the song on university, it's a win win for everybody because hopefully those people are going to eventually become some of our licensees.

And not only did we help them get through with their higher education, but now they're coming back and they're teaching and they're making a difference and they're.

Going to host a board, break a thon or a kickathon and give money back.

And it just keeps repeating.

It's like a ripple effect.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Here's what's going on in Ata Nation.

We want to thank Grandmaster Tammy Stauber for the time she spent with us at Ata headquarters.

What's going on in Ata Nation right now?

It's founders month, ladies and gentlemen.

So what that means is that you should get out there and challenge yourself, challenge your fellow students, challenge your fellow school owners, instructors, masters to raise money for the Huli Scholarship foundation.

We've got a lot of awesome stuff going on with the pink belt revolution.

People wearing pink belts.

This month we want to make sure that we're out there doing our board breakathons kickathons, different kinds of events that you can do to raise money for the scholarship foundation.

It's a great cause.

And what's so great about it is how much money comes back to you, the local schools.

If you are listening to this and getting ready to go to college, this is something you need to apply for, something you can definitely benefit from yourself.

So that is what we want you to be out there doing beyond the belt.

It's not just about what you're doing, kicking and punching.

It's not just about what you're doing.

Those push ups, those burpees, whatever it might be at the school, it's about what you're doing beyond the belt.

And raising money for the scholarship foundation is something that you can do that's going to make a big impact.

So we want to encourage you to get out there and do that.

Talk to your instructor, say, hey, I am really excited about this scholarship foundation.

I want to help be part of Founders Month and celebrating eternal grandmaster.

What can I do?

And I'm sure they would love to help you out.

In addition, we are just like a week away from heading out to Pittsburgh for Fall national, so I hope to see you guys all there.

We're going to be running some interviews out that direction.

We've got some other cool stuff coming.

One thing I would love for you to do is to hit me up on social media and let me know what you'd like to hear on the podcast or what you like that you're hearing on the podcast.

We've got big plans, lots of things coming.

One thing that we've been talking about the last couple episodes is our YouTube channel.

And we have actually just partnered with ATA International, and our interviews are going to get posted.

The video interviews are going to get posted on their YouTube page.

So just make sure you head over to the ATA's YouTube page.

Make sure you click subscribe to ATA's YouTube page.

And when we do our video interviews, we're going to be releasing those online at ATA's YouTube.

So check that out.

Share it with a friend.

If you're a, you know, a YouTube aficionado, if you love to watch YouTube, you know what we want to do?

This is, this is, maybe this is a selfish personal goal, but I think we need to get ATa one of those silver play buttons.

You know, like, I think you got to have like 100,000 subscribers or something like that to get one of those silver play buttons.

We can hang at ATA headquarters.

Don't you think Ata needs a silver play button.

So let's get, let's get over to the YouTube page.

I'm going to be posting these interviews on there, and we can see if we get Ata a silver play button from YouTube.

Okay, guys, that's going to wrap it up for our episode today.

Until next week, make sure that you're out there going beyond the belt.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the ATA Nation podcast.

Be sure to subscribe and share with your Ata family.

Secret part.

So I was down at headquarters getting to do some interviews.

We've got some of those coming up.

It was a busy trip.

Lots of things going on.

I hope you followed it on Instagram.

You might want to know who the ice creams was.

We had a couple of votes.

We had people think that the ice cream was chief master skiles.

Grandmaster deleggies.

I think somebody else mentioned somebody else.

But here's the deal.

I found out it was actually just leftover from what, somebody's birthday party or something they had there.

So I was a little bummed.

I really thought, I personally thought it was.

I thought it was probably chief master skiles.

But maybe next time we'll dig in more.

Okay, guys, take care.