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Details:	Two Rivers Martial Arts teaches traditional Tae Kwon Do, but we are not a traditional martial arts school. We are traditional because we stress the five tenets - Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, and Indominantable Spirt - and because we practice a non-contact sparring style. We are non-traditional because we have no headmaster. Two Rivers is administered by a Board of Directors, which is almost unheard of in martial arts circles. Two Rivers traces its roots to the Eric Heintz Black Belt Academy, and through Master Heintz, to Grandmaster Woo Jin Jung of Jung's Tae Kwon Do in Cedar Rapids. Master Heintz ran a traditional Tae Kwon Do school in the typical manner. He was one of Master Jung's best students and taught Tae Kwon Do at the YMCA in downtown Des Moines for years before opening his own school in the Wakonda Shopping Center. This is the "traditional" way a martial arts school is started. A student decides to go out on his or her own with the master's blessing. In martial arts, the bond between the student and teacher is very strong, and a student usually maintains the affiliation with his/her former master even after establishing his or her own school. Two Rivers Martial Arts did not develop in the traditional way. During the early 1990's, Master Heintz began to have health problems. He had an ulcer that eventually ended with the loss of his stomach. During his first absence of several months, the school's black belts taught classes, ran promotion tests, and carried on the day-to-day operations of the school. Mr. Heintz returned, resumed control of the school, and things returned to normal. Then he had a relapse, and the black belts again maintained the school. Finally, in 1995, Mr. Heintz again left the school to his black belts because of his illness and was able to return on only a few occasions. The black belts ran the school from 1995 through July 28, 1998, when the Eric Heintz Black Belt Academy officially closed. It was a hot Saturday afternoon, July 25, when we held our last meeting as Eric Heintz Black Belt Academy students in the lobby of Master Heintz's school. About a dozen or so black belts showed up. We sat on the floor in the lobby, because all the furniture had been moved out, the electricity had been turned off, and the dojang was dark. We were trying to decide how we could continue doing Tae Kwon Do in the way we had been taught. Some had already decided to quit and were conspicuous by their absence. One of Master Heintz's senior students was starting his own school in Ankeny. But for many of us, training there was not a viable option. We all had our own reasons. As we sat there in the dim light from the window, we were starting to realize that the only option we had, if we were to stay together and continue training, was to start our own school. A long discussion took place, and some students expressed an opinion that this idea wasn't going to work. Some instructors were concerned that their students would be left out in the cold if the idea didn't work, and they didn't want to take the chance that we could actually open a school within a short period of time. At the end of the meeting, someone said they would get together the branch instructors to see what they could come up with and let the rest of us know. We had run the school for Master Heintz for three years, why not our own? Those branch instructors, plus a few others as consultants, became the first Board of Directors, with Ms. Julia Freel as the first business manager. These students met almost weekly to form a non-profit corporation. Thanks to a generous financial contribution from a senior black belt, we were able to hire an accountant and an attorney, get insurance, and jump through all the bureaucratic hoops to become a legally recognized Tae Kwon Do school (and a non-profit organization). Everyone had an innocent optimism. We weren't sure what we were up against, but we somehow knew we could do it. That feeling seemed to spread to our accountant and lawyer. They worked with us, apparently without concern about when we could pay them in full. That further supported our confidence. And during this early time, our business manager found places for us to train so we could continue our traditional Friday night brown and black belt class. We met in a community center on the east side for a while. We trained in one of the smaller Central Campus gyms (with no air-conditioning). We held our tests at several locations, including Carlisle. We did all this with Mr. Heintz's and Ms. Bair's blessing and a distinct lack of support from our superiors, who continued to press for a merging of all former Eric Heintz Black Belt Academy branches, and who continued to inform us that what we were attempting was a bad idea and we would certainly fail. Despite this negativity, we persevered and in a little over a year later, we were able to move into a home of our own, called the Hub. Our students and the parents of students took a gutted-out warehouse-type room and built walls, ceilings, created locker rooms, an office and storage area. We painted, laid carpet, had electrical work done, stained and hung doors, hung pictures, and did whatever needed to be done. Students did almost all of the work themselves. After working their own day jobs, they spent many an evening and weekend devoting their time, energy, and love to this project. The reason that it's call the Hub, and not the Main School, like when we were with the Eric Heintz Black Belt Academy, is because this location is just a centralized place for all branches to meet. It is no more important, or "main", than any other of our branch schools. Visualize, if you will, an old wagon wheel, and think of how all the spokes feed into a central hub. That's Two Rivers Martial Arts - one hub, many spokes. It's been more than three years since we sat in that dimly light lobby and said, "Why not" - when everyone else said it won't work. Today Two Rivers Martial Arts is alive and well. We have added four brand new branches - Easter Lake and Weeks Middle School in Des Moines, Monroe Elementary in Monroe, and in Trenton, Missouri. We lost two of our original branches, Norwalk and Meredith, and we were joined briefly by the Methodist branch, which has since left to form it's own school. We now total twelve locations. We've grown financially, from scrimping by the first year to stability. We have enough income to pay the bills; we have a permanent location; and we've start setting aside funds for scholarships - both for people who can't afford to train in Tae Kwon Do and for our students heading off to college. We've done all this while charging fees that are approximately two-thirds what you'd pay at a typical for-profit martial arts school in Des Moines and other Iowa cities. Two Rivers Martial Arts is a school run by its students. We are all volunteers. No one is paid to teach or serve on the Board of Directors. We do this so we can continue to practice Tae Kwon Do and to pass on what we've gained to the next generations of martial artists.
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