Bob White Invitational

The weekend of March 22-24 weekend I was fortunate to be invited by Bob and Barbara White to attend their event in Costa Mesa, CA. This was the 8th annual Bob White Invitational. They and their staff pulled off a wonderful event to raise money for the Royal Family Kids Camp organization. The RFKC sends abused children to camps across the globe and the White's efforts help many of those kids. I'm told they raised $100,000 this weekend!
   Friday night they held a dinner at a local country club at which they showed a video of one of the kids who had been abused, rescued, cared for and adopted and how RFKC was instrumental. This child's story is a beacon. The founders of the RFKC were there, too and spoke a bit about how the kenpo community has stepped up to help the program so much - and has been spearheaded by the Whites.
   I had ridden over with Bob White, Steve LaBounty, Barney Coleman and John Sepulveda.   I didn't get 10 feet inside the door and saw so many people I hadn't seen in years that it took me another hour to make my way inside. Here's the short list; Chuck Sullivan, Vic LeRoux, Steve Cooper, Ed Downey, Angelo Collado, Rich Hale, Barney Coleman, Gilbert Velez, Doreen DiRienzo (Cogliandro), Mike Pick, Rainer Schulte, Paul Dye, Martin Wheeler, Bobby Lawrence, Ed Parker Jr. and more.

The seniors. I'm over Bob White's left shoulder.

  I was honored to sit at the table with Bob and Barbara, Steve LaBounty, John Sepulveda, Doreen DiRienzo, Barney Coleman and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez.
  At Saturday's tournament I saw my old friend and teacher, Frank Trejo. I finally met Bill Hayes from Old School Kenpo. Dave Hebler was there and Paul Dye interrupted his demo team to have them salute him, which was only right since he had been his first instructor. Outside with Steve LaBounty I was introduced to "Johnny", who turned out to be John Natividad, one of the premier fighters in the 60s and 70s. Graham and Jaydean Lelliott had come down from the Fresno area and we had a chance to hang out, too. Brian Duffy was there from Texas, so we had each other's backs.
  I met several people I'd heard of before like Ted Sumner and Sergio Correa.
  The tournament was an all-kids event and went like clockwork. They had a drawing for a Harley Sportster motorcycle won by a lady who had never ridden a motorcycle before (they pulled her ticket out of my cowboy hat). Between that, the silent auction at the tournament and the auction the night before at the dinner, Bob told me the would raise close to six figures for the kids and they did.
  They're planning #9 next March.