Karate teacher overcomes Palisades fire, opens dojo to help children heal

“Face!

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Center! Low! Hit him hard!” The shouts - a husky voice with a Southern surf bro twang - echoed in the dojo as a 4-year-old blond boy with a headband reading “Lil’ Dragon” punched up at a scowling mannequin.“Kiiiiick! Don't jump. Just kick.... Yeahhh!” More shouts. A huge smile from the tiny boy, a karate student who says he's almost four and a half, thank you very much. An even bigger smile from the shouter, sensei Gerry Blanck. Nearly 11 months have passed since fire ripped through Pacific Palisades, and on this autumn Tuesday, Blanck was back doing what he's done for 43 years-coaching toddlers, teens and grownups in the martial arts. For now, he is doing so in a temporary space in Santa Monica. His dojo on Marquez Avenue burned in the January firestorm. So did the homes of most of his students.

Like Eden Savoian, an 11-year-old Yoshukai green belt whose trophies and breaking boards burned in her dad's house. And 60-year-old Tamar Springer, a black belt whose mother, overwhelmed by the stress of losing her longtime home, died three weeks after the blaze. And Theodore Read, a seventh-grader with a shy, braces-clad smile who confided in Blanck that he was struggling because his dog died in the flames.

Blanck's classes have been a balm for his students in this worst of years. The sessions are loud, joyful, energetic - like Blanck himself, who barks commands as trainees smack each other with foam pads and laughs giddily when they do something awesome, like climb a rope all the way to the ceiling.