A new community boxing gym in Portadown aims to promote good mental and physical health among disadvantaged people.
Empower Martial Arts and Boxing Academy is a not-for-profit gym which opened at 30a Clonavon Avenue last week, with the main aim being to give back to the community, not to make money.
The owners believe that if you can’t afford to train, you should still have access, and have worked in many communities before on special, discrete rates to ensure no one loses out.
Megan Ferry, who started Empower with her husband Stewart, says she identified a need in the area following the closure of the Portadown Community Boxing Club earlier in the year.
Said Megan: “When it closed it was a giant loss to the community, so we’re just trying to get the word back out that we have opened again. The guy who ran Portadown Community Boxing Club sold us all of his stuff so we are a direct replacement.”
Portadown Community Boxing Club closed following the retirement of the owner and it was hearing the stories of the impact it had on the lives of many that motivated Megan and Stewart to press forward.
Megan and Stewart previously ran a gym in Cookstown, but identified the need in the Portadown area.
She explained: “A guy that trains with us at our last gym in Cookstown did a fight for us. He was 17 and his uncle is involved in a charity called Helping Hands. He knew the boxing club had closed down and had seen the difference it had made in his nephew’s life and the way it had changed his confidence.
“The uncle was at a fight and he took Stewart aside and said that Portadown was really missing this, and his nephew was travelling from Portadown to Cookstown and that hundreds of kids had just lost out.
“So we packed up Cookstown gym and got in contact with the owner [Portadown Community Boxing Club].”
She added: We’re going to be doing the same thing he was, which was giving back to the community. It’s not about the money, it’s not about the business, it’s just about having somewhere where the kids can go to and do something good with their time rather than walk the streets.”
Megan and Stewart have since renovated a warehouse into the new boxing club, where they hope to bring as many people as possible through the doors.
“We called ourselves Empower simply because our aim is to help people. It’s not about being the next Conor McGregor, it’s more about seeing a change in that person and giving people back power over their lives.
“A lot of the kids that we’ve dealt with always seem to be marginalised. It’s not the popular guys that come through the door. It’s the ones that are bullied and it’s seeing the change in them and them getting their confidence back.
“It’s not about coming in, getting a bit of fitness, and leaving again, it’s about community and it’s about feeling confident in who you are.”
Megan also stresses that the motivation isn’t to make money.
“If you come in and don’t have the money to pay that’s not a big deal. For a lot of places out there, it’s all about making cash and turning people through the doors, but we see it more that we’re investing in you.”
She also recounts stories of huge success in the lives of many young people who have been involved with them in the past.
“Stewart is taking a guy that has autism and when he first came, he was really really shy. Now, he comes in and he’s laughing and makes direct eye contact… Whenever he got into this, it gave him the confidence in himself that he can stand up for himself and he is worth something. You see that constantly and that’s just one example.”
Megan continued: “We want to be able to do as much as we can for as little as possible and just to help the whole town and whoever else wants to come and see the gym full and thriving and people feeling like they belong to something.
“It’s for guys and for girls too, especially kids. Any age, any disabilities, everybody is always included. It’s about being totally inclusive and it’s really important that people know that.”
Empower operates on a drop-in basis, with classes held four times a week. A 55 minute session for kids is £5 while a 90 minute session for adults is £6.
