12 | JUNE 30 • 2022 

T

he ominously dark 
sky notwithstanding, 
more than two dozen 
participants of Kids Kicking 
Cancer’s Heroes Circle 
program gathered in a tent 
adjacent to the soaring main 
sanctuary of Temple Beth 
El, with parents and siblings 
on hand, to get belted — in 
person.
After two years of remote 
programming caused by 
the COVID-19 pandemic, 
the brave warriors fighting 
pediatric cancer and other 
life-threatening illnesses found 
the inability to connect in 
person even more frustrating, 
so threatening skies weren’t 
going to halt its first in-person 
gathering since the early 
months of 2020.
The belting ceremony 
is the culmination of a 
yearlong journey for the 

students. Through science-
based meditative exercises, 
including practicing somatic 
breathing — all presented 
through a lens of traditional 
martial arts — participants 
achieve various levels of 
expertise. Each mastered 
level earns a different 
color belt to wear with a 
traditional martial arts robe, 
known as a gi. 
Holding the ceremony 
in a large marquee was 
a departure for Heroes 
Circle, which previously 
held the annual event at 
Cranbrook’s Institute of 
Science in Bloomfield Hills. 
The decision to move venues 
was based on the health 
concerns of the population 
KKC serves, who remain 
vulnerable to COVID-19 
despite the pandemic’s 
recession in severe outcomes.

Kids Kicking Cancer holds its first 
in-person “Belting Ceremony” 
since the pandemic.

BRYAN GOTTLIEB CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Back, Live 
 
 and
Kickin’

PHOTOS BY BRYAN GOTTLIEB

Zevi Berman, 7, a student 
at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, 
receives his first-time belt from 
Cindy Cohn, KKC’s longtime 
director of programming. 

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

