Bullying is commonplace at schools all across America. According to bullyingstatistics.org in 2010, there are about 2.7 million students being bullied each year by about 2.1 million students taking on the roll of the bully. Fourth through eighth grade are the prime years for bullying. But the four owners of Relentless Martial Arts Academy & Fitness Center, 524 E. Market St., Warsaw, are hoping to help stem the tide of bullying. The owners are Rachel and David Sumpter, Kevin Bronson and Brandon Hunter. Relentless is having an anti-bullying seminar at 11 a.m. Oct. 19. The approximate 90-minute free seminar is for children 6 to 12 years old. “October is National Anti-bullying month,” Rachel Sumpter noted. “This year we’re going to try to focus on as much community participation as possible. We’re going to serve the areas of children’s programs, women’s fitness and self defense programs and men’s martial arts,” Bronson stated. He said they’re going to focus on these areas by serving the community because they care for the community and want to help families. “Rachel has worked with children and teens for many years now. The Lord really spoke to her heart and she felt like Relentless should reach out to the community and serve the community and this terrible problem in this country called bullying,” Bronson explained. Rachel Sumpter said the age group for the seminar is 6 to 12 years old because that’s when bullying first starts. During the seminar, they will address how bullying starts, talk to parents about bullying and what to do if you’re bullied. They will play games and have a guest speaker talk about his experience with being bullied. Bronson said they want children to recognize when they’re being bullied and that they don’t have to tolerate it. Children will be taught they can reach out to their parents, a teacher or another adult in their life to address any bullying problem they may have and to get it stopped through non-violent reactions. “We hope to have 40 to 100 children attend. We can handle a capacity of probably 140,” Bronson said. He encouraged parents to take a moment of their time to bring their children to the free anti-bullying seminar. “Sometimes it takes an event like this to get through to their children that it’s OK to tell an adult, ‘I am being bullied and I don’t have to be afraid to come forward,’” Bronson said. The anti-bullying seminar is one of several seminars that Relentless Martial Arts & Fitness Center is planning. The others will cover rape prevention, women’s self defense and martial arts for the whole family. “All these programs are ways for the four owners to reach out to the community to affect individuals’ lives to affect the whole family,” Bronson explained. “As an incentive to parents bringing their children, we’ll be giving away free weeks of martial arts training, fitness center usage and personal training for any adult who brings a child to this.” For more information or questions, call Rachel Sumpter at 574-707-5673. The website for Relentless is relentlessmaa.com
