Boards were breaking and pieces of wood went flying as PKSA Karate Oxford hosted a special event Monday evening to raise funds for the Oxford Gives Back program.

Students from PKSA Karate Oxford, owned by Rod Price, and North Oakland Taekwon-Do, owned by Gary Skarritt, participated in a break-a-thon.

“I like doing stuff like this to help the community. I grew up in Oxford and I like giving back to people and helping out,” said Skarritt, a 1974 OHS graduate who’s been teaching martial arts for 26 years.

“It’s about giving back – that’s what karate is about, that’s what martial arts is about,” Price said. “I can teach you kicking. I can teach you punching. But if I don’t teach you about being part of our local community, I haven’t taught you anything.”

Using their hands, feet, elbows and knees, kids and adults broke board after board and ultimately, collected $2,223 in donations for the community-wide spring cleanup scheduled for Saturday, April 29 and Sunday, April 30.

“I’m blown away,” said Jacinta Hogan, founder of Oxford Gives Back. “This is exactly the (type of) community support that we’re looking for.”

A total of 127 homes are currently scheduled to receive free yardwork as part of Oxford Gives Back. Most of them are located in Oxford, but there are some in neighboring Orion, Addison, Brandon and Clarkston.

Raking, mulching, weeding, trimming, clearing debris and other miscellaneous outdoor chores will be performed by Oxford students, school district employees and others.

The work will be done for senior citizens, the disabled, folks dealing with major health issues, impoverished individuals, single-parent homeowners – basically, anyone who needs yardwork done, but is unable to do it themselves and cannot afford to hire help.

Hogan, a student in Oxford Schools Early College program, said the money raised by the board-busting martial arts students is a great boon to the program.

“I’m hoping that we will have enough to buy all the (yard) tools,” she said. “We need to buy tools this year because last year, it was a much smaller event (with 32 homes). We’d like to have a supply that we can use every single year (going forward).”

Rakes, shovels, loppers, gardening shears, gloves and lawn bags are needed.

Manpower is also still desperately needed, so Hogan is hoping more people will come forward to help their neighbors.

“Volunteer-wise, we have 500 signed up,” she said. “We could use about 500 more.”

Folks interested in volunteering can register at www.oxfordgivesback.weebly.com.

Volunteers age 14 and under must have a parent or guardian accompany them.