Grade 12 students Kayla Wiebe and Ayesha Badiola share a passion for women in sports.
Wiebe is a taekwondo instructor and has been in the sport for nearly a decade. Both her dad and older sister were in the sport, which inspired her to join the club. When talking about taekwondo, she says that it has done “so much” for her.
“I have friends and lifelong mentors and it’s given me a sense of perspective. It's always been something that I could run to in times of worry. It's just been a little bit of a safe space for me,”
Wiebe and Badiola are in the same global issues class at Steinbach Regional Secondary School. When the Take Action project was introduced to them, they instantly thought of girls’ participation in sports.
“We're supposed to find an issue that we care about and try and do something about it to show that one person can make a difference. We chose the issue of women in sports and we're trying to encourage them into a new type of community and give them a safe space,” Wiebe said.
After brainstorming and exchanging ideas, they are taking action by having an Introduction to Taekwondo class for girls of all ages that will come at no cost.
“It's specifically for girls and we're just doing a beginners' class. They're going to learn some basics, and then it's meant as a segue into an actual taekwondo class.”
For those who are interested in trying the sport, the class will take place on Tuesday, January 10 from 6 PM to 7 PM at the Steinbach Arts Council. To register and for more information, send a message to Kayla at kaylaawiebe@gmail.com or Ayesha at ayeshayaleana@gmail.com.
With files from Corny Rempel.
Check out this video of Kayla showing Corny some moves
@steinbach_online Kayla teaches Corny some Taekwondo moves🥋 See how it ends up for him. Check out the Introduction to Taekwondo class, details are on SteinbachOnline.com! #taekwondo #sports #steinbach #steinbachonline #manitoba ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey