MMA Favorite

Almaden Valley Athletic Club, the Bay Area’s premier, award winning family facility that offers total health, fitness and wellness programs for all ages, will host three fundraisers throughout the month of October to raise funds for breast cancer research.

“October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the perfect time to help raise awareness about breast cancer and funds for research,” said Joe Shank, co-founder and owner of AVAC. “Breast cancer is a disease that affects many within the Bay Area. As a leading health and wellness facility, AVAC believes we must help educate the community and support local non-profit breast cancer organizations such as the Bay Area Breast Cancer Network. We’re proud to open our doors to the community and invite everyone to participate in such a worthy cause.”

AVAC will officially kick-off National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with its annual Holiday Boutique followed by specialty fitness classes ‘Kick-It Cardio to Kick Cancer’ and ‘Pilates for Pink’. The events offer the following:

AVAC’s Holiday Boutique: Open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Mondays and Tuesdays beginning October 6 through November 11. The public will have the opportunity to purchase specialty items such as jewelry, clothing, children and baby accessories and toys, spa products, party baskets, fall accessories and more. Twenty percent (20%) of vendor proceeds will go to the Bay Area Breast Cancer Network.

Kick-It Cardio to Kick Cancer: To be held on Friday, October 10 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The class consists of 30 minutes of spinning, 30 minutes of kick-boxing and 30 minutes of ZUMBA – the Latin inspired dance workout that combines fast and slow rhythms with resistance training to tone and sculpt your body while burning fat. A minimum donation of $ 25 will guarantee one of 45 spaces with all donations going to the Bay Area Breast Cancer Network.

Shape Magazine’s Pilates for Pink: As a “Pink Partner” AVAC will offer a special Pilates class on Saturday, October 18 from 9:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. with all donations going to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. A donation of $ 10 or more is required.

“At AVAC we understand the importance of exercise and its impact on potentially avoiding or delaying illnesses,” said Sue Davis, general manager of AVAC. “As a result, we offer a variety of creative fitness classes to ensure our members enjoy their workouts and embrace an active lifestyle. If we can do that while supporting a very worthwhile cause, even better!”

AVAC’s month-long support of breast cancer-related activities are open to the public. To participate, contact the Club at (408) 445-4900 or visit http://www.avac.us/AVACGoesPink. AVAC is located at 5400 Camden Avenue in San Jose, CA.

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February is the month of coffee and love with Valentine’s Day and Specialty Coffee month sharing the stage. And that coffee love is blooming at Silicon valley’s Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Barefoot is hosting Guatemalan National Barista Champion Noe Castro for the month of February. Noe Castro was the Guatemala national Barista champion and went on the compete in the 2006 World Barista Championships in Tokyo nabbing 28th place. Noe recently took third place at the 2007 Guatemala Barista Championship and won the title of “Best Espresso” at the championships.

For the months of February and March Noe will be participating in a Barista Exchange at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Noe will be exchanging information, techniques, coffee passion and stories with the Barefoot Coffee team. This is a unique arrangement that builds great rapport between all of the participants. The high end of the specialty coffee industry is a supportive community that thrives on open communication and co-opetition. Noe will be learning to roast coffee, cup and blend coffees from many different countries and learn new espresso extraction techniques. In exchange Noe will be helping to train Barefoot’s Barista competition team, Monica Hill and Marie Holston, as they prepare for the Western Regional Barista Competition March 29-31st 2008 in Berkeley, CA. Noe will also be working the espresso bar pulling espressos for customers throughout the month at Barefoot’s coffee bar.

“My passion is coffee,” said Noe Castro Cacao. “Working with Barefoot Coffee is a remarkable opportunity for me to advance my coffee knowledge, skill and passion. The level of coffee preparation knowledge in the United States will allow me to achieve my goal of representing Guatemala in the World Barista Championships in 2009.”

And to continue the spirit of the exchange he will also be spending a week or two at Ritual Roasters in San Francisco doing many of the same educational opportunities. This type of open community and exchange is a hallmark of the artisan coffee industry where relationships and results are more important than brand.

Artisan roasters take great pride in hand crafting coffees of the highest magnitude. The multi-layered flavor complexities exceed that of even the finest wines. And many of these roasters take the coffee so seriously that they develop direct relationships with coffee farmers in producing countries to ensure the highest quality and most unique flavors. These relationships also serve to pass more of the profits to the coffee farmers themselves through education and awareness.

“Noe is an amazing Barista and representative of Guatemala Coffee,” Mused Andy Newbom, Chief Espresso Officer of Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Inc. “We are honored to be able to host a true champion of great coffee. We met Noe Castro on a trip to visit farms in Guatemala in February 2007, while we were training a group of Guatemalan Baristas and we offered to help Noe refine his presentation for the World competition. His passion, dedication, charm and humility are backed up by his exemplary skill in making great coffee. Damn! This is gonna be a fun month!”

“In Guatemala most Baristas have little or no contact with coffee roasters,” explained Edwin Martinez, owner of Guatemalan coffee estate Finca Vista Hermosa in Huehuetenango. “For Noe to work directly with an artisan coffee roaster of the level of Barefoot Coffee and to learn roasting, blending and cupping is a huge opportunity for him.”

Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Inc. is a cafe and roastery in the heart of Silicon Valley operating in the old ways of hands-on craftsmanship. Hands and hearts beat computer chips any day. Striving for coffee perfection makes Barefoot take coffee pretty seriously and pour love into every bean. While still keeping it simple; taking great coffee, crafting it with pride and passion and treating the whole coffee experience as a culinary art while operating sustainably from top to bottom. The team has been ranked as one of the top four boutique roasters in the nation by Food and Wine Magazine and been voted Best Coffee in the Bay Area four years running by the Wave and Metro magazines and recently the Mercury News. Barefoot is an artisan roaster of sustainable coffees including Organic, Fair Trade, Shade Grown, co-op grown, single estates, auction winning lots and relationship coffees. These great coffees have amazingly complex flavors, nuances and layers which are truly wonderful on your tongue. Barefoot Coffee Roasters is proud to be a participating member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the Roasters Guild and a founding member of the Barista Guild of America and the Nor Cal Coffee Maffia. Located at 5237 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara, CA (at the corner of Lawrence Expressway). For more information, please call (408) 293-7200, visit http://www.barefootcoffee.com or simply drop by.

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Fabricio Werdum Hosts Web Seminar

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 29, 2010

On October 2, 2010 at 1:00 p.m. PST celebrated STRIKEFORCE MMA star Fabricio Werdum will break ground by hosting the first-ever live MMA/Jiu-jitsu seminar. Broadcasted online via onlinefightchannel.com, the interactive web seminar will offer fight fans an exclusive opportunity to be instructed by one of MMA’s top fighters.

Fabricio Werdum was catapulted into the national spotlight after a stunning sixty-nine second submission defeat of #1 ranked heavyweight and pound for pound MMA fighter Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko on June 26, 2010 in the main event at STRIKEFORCE and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum, live on SHOWTIME® from HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Fabricio is currently ranked one of the top 3 heavyweight MMA fighter in the world. He is also a two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, a two-time ADCC world heavyweight champion and European Jiu-Jitsu champion.

Fabricio invites fight fans and MMA/Jiu Jitsu enthusiasts to take part in the seminar. Students participating will have an opportunity to ask questions and have them answered in real-time by Fabricio. To participate, subscribe to www.onlinefightchannel.com. In addition to signing up for the seminar, you will receive a 30-day trial membership to access the site’s video-on-demand content after the live event.

Seminar Topics Include:

-Control from the guard

-Arm bars

-Triangles

-Omoplatas

-Kimura

-MMA Open Guard

-Half Guard Sweeps

-and more

Don’t miss this chance to be instructed by one of the top MMA stars in the world. For more information regarding Fabricio Werdum’s live seminar, please visit: www.onlinefightchannel.com, or www.facebook.com/fabriciowerdum. For press inquiries, please contact Terrance Gillum at 818.205.8729 and/or terrance(at)abgpr(dot)com.

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