Cherry Whitaker has come along way since she first started attending classes at the New Glasgow Karate Club in 1987 with her son Ben.
For a full year she trained in the kids' class because she was too timid to go to an adult class.
The sensei at the time was Roch Lefebvre, who Whitaker said lived up to his name in that he was tough as a rock.
"He was scary to me, and it felt safer to me in the kids' class," Whitaker says.
Who would have thought then, that 23 years later she'd be a fourth-degree black belt and a sensei receiving a national award for her contributions to karate in Canada?
In March Whitaker was awarded the Ross Rumbell Award by Karate Canada.
It was the first national meet that Whittaker had not been at since 1997. While she wishes she could have been there to accept the award in person, Whitaker said she is almost glad she didn't because she would have been tongue-tied.
"I was speechless," she said. "I wouldn't have known what to say."
She received a call to tell her she had won. They then gave her time to collect her thoughts and speak by phone to the approximately 500 people gathered at the event.
The award is for long-term contributions to karate development in Canada and she's certainly had made plenty of those. In addition to serving as chief instructor of the New Glasgow Karate Club where about 50 people train, she has also been involved with karate provincially and nationally.
Whittaker has served as the Nova Scotia Karate Association president, the provincial delegate to the National Karate Association, headed the committee when Nova Scotia hosted the Canadian National Black Belt Championships in 2004, and is currently ranked an A Level Official for provincial tournaments.
As a Yon Dan, Jun Shidoin, she is the highest female in Nova Scotia Chito Ryu.
But Whittaker says there should be two names on her award plaque. The one missing is that of her husband, Richard, also a black belt she said.
"He has contributed for as many years as I have," she says.
Together they weighed in athletes at national events, and coached all level of students. He was by her side as she worked as an official at the national events and trained other officials too.
Without his support she knows she would never have made it as far as she has.
She plans to continue her work in karate in the future for the same reason she stayed in it this long.
"Because there's always so much to learn and because the people I've met are awesome," she says.
