Garcia Boxing – Kathy and Max Garcia
Community role models don’t come any better than Kathy and Max Garcia. Owners and operators of Salinas-based Garcia Boxing, the husband-and-wife team runs a successful business and uses their success to reach out to help young people in the community.
“Kids need to develop good character, good morals and healthy habits early,” says Kathy. “Why wouldn’t we want to provide that opportunity where we can?” Garcia Boxing has become one of the most respected boxing organizations in California and has generated a winning style in the ring and in the community. The training and national success of boxer Jose Celaya in the mid-1990s put the new boxing school on the map, and the school’s dedicated management and skilled training team have brought success after success.
Head trainer Max Garcia, along with co-trainers Sam Garcia and Don Familton, nutritionist Linda Rodriguez, and boxers Jesus “Chuy” Rodriguez (19-3) and “Prince” Eloy Perez (13-0), have generated a record of continuing wins and championship titles for Garcia Boxing. Part of the secret may be that Kathy and Max are a family to their young boxers, offering not just athletic training but also a safe haven, support, and love, and instilling lifelong values. For some, this is the first time someone has believed in them.
The Garcias’ hearts don’t stop there. For the past five years, Kathy and Max have partnered with Kinship Center’s “Family Ties” program to help provide opportunities for children with backgrounds of abuse, neglect and abandonment.
The program supports relatives, mainly grandmothers, who step forward to give traumatized children a safe, permanent home. Garcia Boxing underwrites therapeutic camps and other special programs for Family Ties children.
“We try to model self-respect and good character, and show kids who have had a rough start that they can take control of their lives and be anything they want,” says Kathy.
Salinas-based boxing school, Garcia Boxing, owned by Kathy and Max Garcia, will host their second dinner and star-studded celebrity boxing exhibition fundraiser for Kinship Center’s “Family Ties” relative caregiver program. The event will raise funds to provide critical assistance for relatives unexpectedly caring for children with backgrounds of abuse, neglect or abandonment.
To learn more about the Kinship Center, click here: