February 2026 Newsletter
Newsletter[REPLACE: Month YYYY]•By Master Mark O’Connor
Respect • Commit • Persevere • Succeed!
Traveling Dojo News – Student Edition
The Place Where All of Our Students Meet!
Hi Students! As a school that offers a variety of instruction delivery methods spread across Montgomery County, we enjoy bringing our student base together through regular announcements informing our students of important, and usually fun, news!
In this edition of The Traveling Dojo News we are very excited to announce the GRAND OPENING of our first permanent location, the addition of a new black belt assistant instructor and to let you know we will be participating in the
🍀 Gaithersburg St. Patrick’s Day Parade! 🍀
Read on for details!
Our Grand Opening!
10017 Locust Drive, Damascus
As most of you know, The Traveling Dojo offers martial arts instruction at Master Mark’s home dojo, at the private homes of our students, at the Gaithersburg Youth Center, the Casey Community Center in Gaithersburg and NOW our FIRST PERMANENT location in Damascus!
We are very excited to open this location to serve northern Montgomery County. We are very confident our new students will enjoy our martial arts focused program with an enriching experience providing not just structured martial arts instruction, but also practical self-defense, and martial arts history in an inclusive and safe environment where everyone can build self-confidence and a fearless existence!
Welcome New Students!
Welcome Aboard Greta!
Greta Koehn – Assistant Instructor
Please join us in welcoming Greta Koehn as an Assistant Instructor! Greta will be helping us ensure our group sessions in Damascus maintain a high level of instructor involvement with all our students. Our unique approach is to keep classes small and maintain a high level of engagement. Greta is going to be a great addition – WELCOME GRETA!
Greta loves reading, including books by Jane Austen, Isabel Allende, The Bronte Sisters and many of “the classics”. Greta also loves mythology, philosophy, meditation, music and singing (she has an awesome voice!). Greta is also quite the carpenter. She has made numerous martial arts weapons from various wood species, including my own personal bo staff (see pic below).
St. Patrick’s Day Parade – Join Us!
Wanna Ride in Master Mark’s ‘69 Vette?
We are registering to participate in the City of Gaithersburg’s 24th annual St. Patrick’s Day parade (assuming we’ve left the ice age by then 🥶!). Master Mark will be driving his 1969 Corvette Stingray along the parade route. We are looking for students to volunteer to join us in the parade to carry a sign, help us handout some giveaways or just walk with us!
Date: Saturday, March 14th, 2026 @10AM
Location: Rio Lakefront (Rio Boulevard and Grand Corner Avenue)
Click Here to March or Volunteer!
Ready to start your martial arts journey?