By GARY NAGER
It seems you never really know what effect an event is going to have on you until you actually attend it.
A case in point — I was really only going to the “80s Flashback Bingo” event, sponsored by CORE Spine & Rehabilitation Center, LLC, to support Wesley Chapel Noon Rotary Club president-elect (and CORE owner) and chiropractor Pablo Rivera, DC, and his wife Christine in their efforts to help the “Martial Arts for Life’ Foundation, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization started by Sensei Ernesto Fuentes of the Keiko Shin Karate dojo at 3753 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. here in Wesley Chapel.
The thing I didn’t know until I went to the fun event, which was attended by more than 50 people and raised nearly $2,000 for the Foundation, was the effect Fuentes and his cause would have on me.
The Riveras have had their children trained in karate by Fuentes, who said that he moved his family from his native Venezuela a few years ago because his daughter was targeted by human traffickers and he was told by law enforcement officials that the only way “to prevent her from being taken was to take her out of the country.”
Fuentes and his family escaped to Miami but ultimately settled in Wesley Chapel. During the ‘80s-themed event, he made an obviously emotional presentation about human trafficking — including mentioning that Florida has the third highest number of children being trafficked in the U.S. and that the Tampa Bay area is unfortunately the leading location for trafficking in the Sunshine State, where the average age of the victims is only 12.
“Trafficking is a huge business,” said Fuentes, who also recently added training the children at the Everyday Blessings foster home in Thonotosassa, which specializes in caring for siblings at their location. “It is up to us to do something about it.”
For info about Keiko Shin Karate, call 994-9253. For CORE Spine & Rehabilitation (5900 Argerian Dr., Suite 101), call 373-5317 or visit Facebook.com/CoreSpine. — GN
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