Martial arts enthusiast RJ teams with local instructor to help younger students
By Kevin Woodhouse
www.thesuburban.com
A child at heart, Randolph Jacob has a passion for the Power Rangers and sharing his love of martial arts to other enthusiasts.
Jacob—or RJ as he prefers—began taking martial arts classes when he was a teenager and was recently matched up with West Island Citizen Advocacy through CROM (West Montreal Readaptation Centre).
RJ, who is autistic, has found a friend in Meghan Greig, martial arts instructor at Pointe Claire’s Monkey Bar gym and like RJ, a longtime practitioner.
When Greig and her husband Steve, always an instructor, met RJ, “we all immediately adored him.”
It wasn’t long before Grieg enlisted her new friend’s help with her younger charges, a match that has worked out perfectly because “the kids are fascinated by him because he’s an adult who shares the same enthusiasm for some of the same things as they do.
“He’s excellent with the kids and he really backs me up with whatever I’m trying to do with the kids,” Grieg explained. “He’s a good role model for them.”
She calls it a “match made in heaven” and plans to develop more specific programs for her other students in the future.
The martial arts instructor is pleased that she decided to donate some of her time to WICA as “I’ve read in the newspapers that the Citizen’s Advocacy is always looking for volunteers to help out but I never realized that this type of match could be made. It’s kind of an unorthodox type of match and it’s fabulous.”
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