The American Martial Arts Institute is a traditional school, and as such, it maintains a professional and caring atmosphere that makes its locations more than a place to workout, it makes those locations a home for its students. The main training center is located in New Harford, New York and is designated as the main location because it is where the head of the school, Grandmaster Clifford C. Crandall, Jr., teaches classes most often. All staff meetings, brown belt testings, and black belt testings are held at this location.

During the year the instructors spend the time necessary to care for this location. Much of this hard work occurs behind the scenes. Cleaning bathrooms, vaccuuming the training floors, dusting the pictures, cleaning the glass, empyting garbage, replacing light bulbs, general maintanance, and a variety of other tasks fall on the shoulders of the instructors who understand that it part of their responsibility to care for the training hall as it is the home for all of the school's students. Instructors are not paid and meet this responsibility year round.

One day each year students who are not instructors are invited to join the instructors in the care for the school. This year the main location held its cleaning day on Saturday, May 1st. Together the students worked alongside instructors. Some of the cleaning included: replacing the interior and exterior light bulbs, replacing ceiling tiles, washing mats, kicking bags, and shields, painting, cleaning bathrooms, washing interior and exterior windows, washing and dusting walls, vacuuming and using a carpet cleaner on the main floor, washing the furniture and display cabinets, sweeping the parking lot, cleaning the 4000 square foot basement, hanging new pictures, repairs, and much more. Through their combined efforts, the school's clean and professional atmosphere was enhanced and maintained.

Chief Instructor Eric Stalloch, who is the proprietor of the New Hartford location, coordinated the days activities. Many instructors were available to help this year, and they would like to recognize the efforts of the students who came to assist. These students were:

Morgan Weber,
Josef Byrne,
Douglas Hotvedt,
Alex Catera,
Peter Hotvedt, and
David Faulkner.

We concluded at 2:15 p.m. Thank-you to all who helped.

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