In March of 2018 Sweets Kendamas partnered with Kendama Institute, a non-profit founded by Tyler Abrahamson, a licensed high-school biology teacher and co-founder of Kendama Mpls, and Joshua Grove, an experienced Kendama educator and Sweets sponsored player. KI’s (pronounced ‘key’) mission is to educate the global community about the physical, social, mental, and emotional benefits kendama can offer.
KI has introduced their curriculum to 8 afterschool programs here in Minneapolis and as well as in both Physical Education classes and afterschool programing in 20 schools around the United States and Canada.
Kendama Institute is dedicated to helping people of all ages and backgrounds build social and emotional resiliency, while also learning techniques on how to transform failure into opportunities for growth, mindfulness and success all through mindful play.
To accomplish this mission, KI focuses on two things, education and community support.
Education: They developed a curriculum designed specifically to connect learning kendama with building useful, life-long skills. Through mindful play and self-reflection, students create their own resiliency toolbox meant to help them succeed throughout life. We at Sweets Kendamas have partnered with KI to help bring affordable class sets of kendamas to schools.
Community Support: To help foster the community of players we are building, KI plans to help organize and sponsor competitions and events around the country. Kendama Institute also seeks to encourage players to give back to their community by providing a platform for them to get involved in education and social justice causes.
We at Sweets are completely stoked to be working with these gentlemen and their mission.
Check out our most recent edit for a look at some of the stuff we are doing with KI. It documents a group of our pros on a recent Kendama Institute trip to Michigan with Joshua right after Dama in the D.
Be sure to Follow Kendama Institute on Instagram at @Kendama_Institute for all of their adventures, updates, and how to get involved.
For Information on how you can bring Kendama Institutes programs to your community or school, email Education@kendamaInstitute.org.
He stoked to get involved
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