Dear Community, We need your help. For over thirty years, we have proudly hosted a safe, supportive, and inclusive space for the Madison community to benefit from martial arts, fitness, and self-defense. At our dojo, all people—of all ages, identities, and abilities—can find strength, safety, and connection through martial arts. Due to the global pandemic, our revenue is down 80% and we are in real danger of closing our cooperatively owned business. Since March 18, we have closed our doors to help keep our community safe. We miss our dojo friends, and we eagerly look forward to being able to kick, punch, spar, and have fun on the mat again as soon as it is safe to do so. We know we would improve our bottom line if we re-opened, but we are committed to prioritizing the health and wellbeing of our community during this time.  Typically fall is our strongest season of the year, and that revenue helps us survive the slowest season--winter. Although we are offering online alternatives to in-person instruction, we can’t expect to survive through spring without immediate assistance. We have applied for every eligible small business grant, and even having received some, we still come up short. That’s why we need your help to continue to offer our unique mix of feminist self-defense courses, affordable kids classes, empowering kickboxing, and practical self-defense based martial arts. You will not find another martial arts studio in the midwest with as many high-ranking women instructors, including two women masters.  Our ultimate fundraising goal, to help us stay up and running over the next 6 months, is $20,000. This amount will help us to pay our rent and retain enough staff hours to operate virtually during the pandemic. When we reach $500, GoFundMe will match that amount, through a grant they’re offering to small businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19. For the rest, we’re asking for help from anyone who has benefitted from our services over the last 30 years, or who hopes to join us in person next year, and your friends and family.  If you are able to contribute, any amount helps! If not, you can support us by sharing our campaign and letting your network know why it’s important to you for our dojo to survive this pandemic. On Saturday, September 26, we will be holding a special virtual Kickboxing class to support this fundraising campaign. Our senior kickboxing instructor, Alexa, will be hosting. Further details are coming soon! In the meantime, we have virtual classes offered weekly. Our schedule can be found here: <a href="http://www.villarismadison.com/covid-19.html" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.villarismadison.com/covid-19.html</a> Stay tuned for upcoming women’s self-defense offerings! We hope you’re staying safe and healthy, and we look forward to seeing you virtually until we can see you in person. Villari’s Martial Arts Cooperative #SaferStrongerTogether #SmallBusinessRelief

Anonymous

Amy Schumacher

Amanda Werhane

James Vannes

Kyle Egerdal

Allegra Denton

Don Dolphin

Erin O'Keefe

Susan Robinson

Hannah Klawes

David K Grundgeiger

Shannon Flasch

Kristin Isaac

Villari's Martial Arts (now UNDERGROUND)

Villari's Martial Arts (now UNDERGROUND)

Still $2,660 to go. Help us build momentum.