Black Belt Community Service Projects

A community service project is required to receive a first degree Black Belt at Mile High Karate, and it must be completed before the Black Belt Pre-Test. The projects below are the school’s own record: 76 projects, filmed and published by the school, by candidates for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Degree Black Belt. They are the visible end of a long habit — the expectation that a Black Belt is measured by what they give to people outside the school as well as by what they can do on the mat.

The requirement

At Mile High Karate, Black Belt is not awarded on a class night. It is the end of a process that runs for months, and the community service project comes early in it: the project must be completed before a candidate sits the Black Belt Pre-Test. Testing then continues with the formal pre-test and written examination at the school, and finishes at a three-day Black Belt Retreat in the Colorado mountains, where forms, sparring, self-defense, advanced curriculum and conditioning are judged by senior Black Belts. A few weeks later the new Black Belts are presented on stage at the Black Belt Extravaganza. The typical path to a first Black Belt is about 48 months of consistent training.

The candidate chooses a project, carries it out in the community, and then presents it — what they did, who it served, and what they learned — on video, so the whole school can see it. The specific requirements have evolved over the school’s history. The published record covers three levels: 50 projects by candidates for 1st Degree, 17 for 2nd Degree and 9 for 3rd Degree.

Thirteen of the 76 projects were completed by two or three candidates together, and several of those are families testing in the same cycle — the Schankweilers, the Zylstras, the Petersens, the Harts and the Bowens all appear as joint projects. Projects cluster around the school’s spring and fall testing cycles.

Requiring a student to earn rank outside the dojo as well as inside it is long-standing practice at Mile High Karate. Its early testing requirements obliged every young student to bring copies of school grades, a completed parent/teacher intent-to-promote form and an exam qualification form before testing. The school’s own booklet explained that these requirements “support our focus on academic excellence as well as contribute to the family and the community.”

A long habit of community work

The individual Black Belt project is the personal version of something the school has done institutionally for more than forty years. Since 1983 Mile High Karate instructors have worked with educators across Colorado — including Cherry Creek, Douglas County, Jefferson County, Adams County, Boulder County and Denver Public Schools — through character-education programs, PE and gym-teacher programs, school carnivals, career days, fundraisers and teacher training.

Some markers from the school’s history:

• June 6, 1992 — Mile High Karate sponsored and hosted the start and finish of Project Concern International’s second annual Denver Area Walk for Children.
• 1995–1997 — Mile High Karate was a leading supporter of Chuck Norris’s Kick Drugs Out of America. Its schools raised more than $50,000 for the program, and through the Educational Funding Company’s efforts Stephen Oliver helped raise more than $500,000. Norris’s T.E.A.M. News of December 1997 recorded EFC Chairman Nicholas Cokinos presenting Norris a check for $130,972, and singled out Oliver for contributing $15,000.
• 1999 and 2007 — Mile High Karate materials state that its staff had volunteered in hundreds of area schools and that its schools raised more than $100,000 a year for local elementary schools.
• August 2002 — a kick-a-thon benefiting Colorado fire relief.
• 2003 — the school’s “Secrets of the Last Samurai” program was taught to 19,732 Colorado elementary students.
• 2006 — a Mile High Karate school raised $500 for Children’s Hospital, a long-running cause for the organization.

Today the Thornton school runs before- and after-school enrichment programs in the Jefferson, Adams and Brighton school districts, with funds raised returned to the schools. The Black Belt community service project asks each candidate to take that same habit and make it personal.

The projects

Seventy-six projects, newest first, as published by the school. Each thumbnail opens the candidate’s presentation on YouTube.

October 2026 testing cycle (10 projects)

April 2026 testing cycle (8 projects)

October 2025 testing cycle (17 projects)

May 2025 testing cycle (1 project)

Earlier projects (40 projects)

Questions

Is a community service project required for Black Belt at Mile High Karate?

Yes. A community service project is required to receive a first degree Black Belt, and it must be completed before the Black Belt Pre-Test.

When in the Black Belt process does the community service project happen?

Before the Black Belt Pre-Test. Testing then continues with the formal pre-test and written examination at the school and finishes at a three-day Black Belt Retreat in the Colorado mountains.

Which ranks complete a community service project?

The project is required to receive a first degree Black Belt. The school’s published record also includes projects by candidates for higher degrees: 50 projects at 1st Degree, 17 at 2nd Degree and 9 at 3rd Degree.

Do candidates work alone or in groups?

Most projects are completed individually. Thirteen of the 76 published projects were completed by two or three candidates together, often family members testing in the same cycle.

How long has Mile High Karate done community work?

Since it opened in 1983. Its instructors have worked with Colorado school districts through character-education programs, school carnivals, career days, fundraisers and teacher training, and its schools supported Chuck Norris’s Kick Drugs Out of America, Project Concern International and Children’s Hospital.

Related pages

• The Nine Qualities of a Mile High Karate Black Belt
• The Mile High Karate Black Belt Retreat
• The Mile High Karate Black Belt Extravaganza
• The Mile High Karate Standard: An Academy, Not a Drop-In Class
• The Complete History of Mile High Karate, 1983–Present
• Mile High Karate Thornton

Last reviewed October 19, 2026.