Forteza Fitness

Fitness & Physical Culture

Forteza Welcomes Three New Instructors and Two New Programs to the Family!

The Yin & Yang of Forteza

It’s been a crazy busy summer at Forteza, and the fall looks to be even busier, so much so that we have a brand new expansion to FightingFit!, an entirely new *program* and not one, not two, but three new instructors joining the Forteza Family.

Taoism is based on the principle of two opposite, yet complementary energies: Yin & Yang, which comprise everything. Yin energy is soft, feminine, nurturing, while Yang energy is harder, male, more aggressive. What does this really mean? Although they are totally different—opposite—in their individual qualities and nature, they are interdependent. Yin and Yang cannot exist without the other; they are never separate.

What does Ying & Yang have to do with Forteza? We have tried to reflect the idea of complementary training in everything we do, combining traditional martial arts with modern self-defense, old school bootcamps, with innovative training and adventure racing. Although we didn’t plan it this way, the new class expansions we are about to show you really reflect this interweaving energies, both in the classes themselves, and the instructors you will meet. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself!

First the Yin…as in Yoga.

We have offered yoga classes and workshops periodically over the years, and while there has always been interest in an on-going class, either there wasn’t an instructor available for the times people wanted the classes, students couldn’t make the times we offered classes, or in some way things weren’t quite the right fit. We’re happy to say that we feel that we finally have the right instructor, the right program and the right time!

Yin yoga (or “Recovery yoga”) is a slow-paced style of yoga with postures that are held for longer periods of time — for beginners, it may range from 45 seconds to two minutes; more advanced practitioners may build the flexibility and endurance to stay in one posture for five minutes or more.
Yin yoga targets deep connective tissue, applying moderate stress to the body’s tendons, fascia, and ligaments along with certain breathing techniques with the aim of increasing circulation in the joints and improving flexibility. A more meditative approach to yoga, yin allows you to gain more clarity and mobility in the body, both physically and mentally, making it the perfect complement to more active, explosive training.

The new Yin Yoga class meets Wednesday mornings at 6 AM. Classes start the week of October 2nd. You can attend as part of your FightingFit! membership, via punchard or by purchasing a month of classes through the website.

About the Instructor

Caitlyn Shaver, LMT/RYT found yoga in 2009 while studying to become a licensed massage therapist at the American Institute of Alternative Medicine (AIAM).During this time period, she found that yoga allowed her mind to re-center from studying, and her body to heal after workouts. The combination of these two practices created a synergy and balance which led Caitlyn, upon completion of her degree from the AIAM, to embark on the journey of becoming a 200 hour yoga instructor. She received her training over nine months in Columbus, Ohio with Janice George at the SamYoga Institute, where she was also the program’s student assistant. Certified in multiple types of yoga styles ranging from Yin Yoga to Vinyasa Flow Yoga, she is able to modify poses for each individual student in her class while also catering to advanced practices.

…and then the Yang: Introducing Our New Combatives and Counter Violence

Combatives has been a part of the Forteza course offering since we opened our doors in 2012, with the studio hosting the biggest names in combatives, from Kelly McCann, to Lee Morrison of Urban Combatives and Dom Rasso of Dynamis. But a lot of confusion still remains on how “combatives” and “martial arts differ.

Martial Arts are the formalized training of a set, or subset of armed or unarmed combat skills, in an equal environment. Today, some martial arts are taught for fitness or competitive sports, others as cultural preservation. To survive the test of time, traditional martial arts have to have contained real, practical fighting skills, but they are usually taught in an environment of equals — a duel between warriors — precisely how assaults DO NOT happen on the street. Unfortunately, this means you can spend years developing great skills for sparring in a fair fight or in the ring, and be helpless when sucker-punched by a mugger.

That’s where Combatives and Counter Violence come in.

Combatives is about stripping fighting down to its raw essence: simple, gross-motor skills that can be applied quickly and effectively when under attack. It isn’t a “system”, it’s an approach.

Counter Violence is where martial arts, combatives and combat psychology meet: combining the combative mindset with learning how to read a situation, avoid confrontation, anticipate violence, and then, if necessary, quickly and ruthlessly employ your skills so you go home to your loved ones.

Now, in one of the most exciting developments since we opened our doors, we are pleased to announce a completely new Combatives and Counter-Violence program, spear-headed by renowned Chicago-based instructor, Michael VanBeek of Focus Counter Violence, with the able assistance of Forteza’s own Jesse Kulla. In addition, after a long hiatus, Martial Blade Combatives (MBC) returns in a short-course format, led by full-licensed instructor Thayne Alexander.

This new program  is module based and divided into an Introduction to Counter-Violence class, a small Master-Class, a Combat Conditioning class to refine your striking skills and improve your physical well-being, and an on-going series of short workshops and training camps. Here’s how YOU can be a part of it:

Intro to Focus Counter-Violence (Thurs 7 PM)
Your journey into realistic personal-protection starts here! This 12-week course crushes the stereo-types of martial arts and self defense. You will be introduced to the realities of violence — how to sense its signals, how it initiates, what it takes to respond quickly and effectively, and how to deal with the physical, mental and emotional aspects of this reality.  This course is all inclusive! The physical elite need not attend, and indeed, that isn’t the point. Whether by size or number, attackers are looking for the underdog: Learn a direct solution to a complicated problem in a transformation process that turns the underdog into an angry pitbull! (Includes immediate access to Combat-Conditioning.) JOIN NOW!

Focus Counter-Violence Master Class (Thurs 8 PM)
This 12 week course is for the serious! This is the culmination of Martial arts and Combatives smashed into one course. Simulation and emotional content training will be taught through the best drills and skills module there is! If you have any previous training at all you will love this. The perfect blend! Jeet Kune Do injected straight to the streets using the only Counter Violence training Algorithm in existence. Classes are kept to a maximum of ten students, for maximum student-teacher interaction. SEE YOU THERE! (Includes immediate access to Combat-Conditioning.)

FightingFit! Combat Conditioning
(Tues & Thurs 6 PM)

Get into fighting shape with a blend of pad work, kettlebells, body weight exercises, and fighter conditioning. We will get you in fighting shape…..guaranteed. Besides being a robust, complete fighting system, combatives and counter-violence are designed to be practical, efficient and tactical. You’ll train your bodies hard, but you’ll also hone your minds, learning how to boil empty-hand and weapon tactics down to the critical skills that you really need to survive a violent encounter, while putting a heavy emphasis on skills of tactical awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation.

Special Topics & Seminars
Forteza has also been home to seminars, workshops and monthly gatherings of local, national and international combatives and self-defense experts, covering a wide-variety of topics from metal-preparedness to combat scenario training, stick, knife and improvised weapons use to firearm preparedness and retention. These programs are listed on our Events page, and Facebook and are open to the public.

About the Instructor

Earning several different rankings in various traditional arts, Michael stumbled upon Jeet Kune Do in the late 1980’s. This art, made famous by its founder Bruce Lee, led VanBeek to train with many of the greatest martial artists alive. In the early 1990’s he not only maintained a victorious cage fighting record but also trained with firearms and tactical weaponry as a professional body guard, while finishing his education in Criminal Justice. As a security guard in the greater Chicago land area, Michael was exposed to a side of self-defense/fighting not often seen in the martial arts. After a few years modifying the way he taught martial arts, Michael began creating the “Anatomy of Violence”, a comprehensive breakdown of the workings of violence from an insiders perspective.With a unified goal and service to educate and train people to save their lives from real violence, without the rituals, uniforms or the time required by most training systems, Focus could now offer “Real Solutions to Real Problems for Real People.”

Today, Michael spends most of his time in service working with special needs children, lecturing and presenting seminars on Counter Violence to families, corporations, security firms, organizations and individuals. In addition to running his company, Michael speaks to groups about performance-related matters, using his story to inspire others.

 

Martial Blade Concepts (MBC) and Big-Knife Training Returns!

The choice on whether or not to carry a weapon is a personal one, but even today, many people carry small knives as utility tools and, if necessary, a means of defense. As such, knowing how to successfully deploy and use a knife, and how to defend against it, is useful skill for anyone interested in practical self-defense. Developed by well-known self-defense personal protection instructor Michael Janich, the MBC Self-Defense System is the result of more than 30 years of training, research, and analysis of the world’s most effective fighting arts, emphasizing the development of “all-purpose” defensive skills, and learning how to apply them to literally hundreds of different defensive situations. MBC is a compact, “plug-and-play” curriculum that you an add to any of your other training.

MBC full instructor and life-long martial arts student will be bringing MBC back to Forteza in a series of periodic, thematic short-courses (4 – 6 weeks) as a complement to Focus Counter-Violence, or a stand-alone modern defense system in its own right. Thayne will also be working with us to (finally!) expand our American Heritage/Antagonistics program with short courses in Bowie knife, tomahawk and single-stick. Watch this space for more!

About the Instructor:

Thayne Alexander has been studying and a practitioner of the martial arts, weapons combat and defense, and the modern combative’s world for well over 28 years. Starting with Aikido at age 14, and moving onto and achieving a high rank.   After graduating high school, he became interested in MMA and spent years learning a blend of Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do.

Thayne found Western arts in 1999, when he began the study of Armizare, and is still active today as a senior Scholar and Instructor of the Chicago and Rocky Mountain Swordplay Guilds.

In 2005 Thayne started Martial Blade Concepts/ Counter Blade Concepts training along with Kali Eskrima Silat and became a MBC Full Instructor under the founder Michael Janich in 2013.

Around the same time of starting MBC. Thayne’s love for the old American melee weapon styles got him involved with Bowie knife and Tomahawk weapons and has been teaching the big knife in on-going classes and a few seminars since 2014.

Today, in addition to Armizare and MBC, he is a student of realistic based defense systems, studying under giants in the field such as Lee Morrison and Kelly McCann’s, and is a practicing savateur  in the system of Boxe Francaise and street Savate.

 

Read More »

IKFF Kettlebell Certification Review

By Keith Jennings

This past January, I participated in a Kettlebell instructor certification seminar with the International Kettlebell and Fitness Federation (IKFF).  This was the third kettlebell certification course I’ve attended, and it was both the most comprehensive in terms of technique, and yet also the most sparse in terms of catalog of techniques.  Since my reason for taking this course was to focus on the primary kettlebell lifts used in sport competition, this suited me just fine.  The IKFF website describes their approach as such:

The IKFF is an organization whose goals are two-fold: to promote Kettlebell training and complete mind/body fitness on a global scale, and to support our members in developing the all-encompassing skills needed to accelerate their own fitness and fitness-oriented businesses.  The vision in creating this is to offer passionate fitness enthusiasts a no-nonsense, ever-evolving resource they can trust is on the cutting edge of athletic training and conditioning!
 
Most Kettlebell courses are either run like a diabolical bootcamp, where learning technique often come second to getting your ass kicked during two days of relentless training.  The reasoning behind this is, if you want to consider yourself a kettlebells instructor, you better be just as bad ass as the piece of iron that you working to master.  I’m ok with this approach, and found these courses to be a lot of fun.  Other courses almost try to do too much, mixing in Hard-Style with Sport training, all the while trying to find time to work on supplemental training such as joint mobility or gymnastics.  With the IKFF certification course, the emphasis was completely technique based.  In fact, much of the seminar was spent without a kettlebell in hand, making sure we had the correct body mechanics down before even picking up a bell.  The only kettlebell lifts taught were the single hand swing, the clean, the press (and its many variations), and the snatch.  Many of the standard kettlebell exercises, such as the Turkish Get-Up and the Windmill, were barely mentioned.  Instead, the IKFF is singularly focused and dedicated to kettlebell Sport lifting, known as  Girevoy Sport.  Taught by IKFF Head Master Trainer Ken Blackburn, he emphasized that with sport lifting, the devil is in the details.  Even the smallest detail will make a huge impact on your performance.  I have had kettlebell sport technique explained to me in the past, and have seen elite athletes perform both in person and in video.  However, it wasn’t until training under Ken that I have come to truly appreciate the intricacies of such technique, why this is the preferred method for lifts such as Long Cycle and snatching, and I have become a true believer.
So, what does this mean for kettlebell training at Forteza?   Like most things in life, there are positives to both sides, and we will be incorporating sport style into our already established kettlebell regimen.  In the next blog, I will go over what the differences are between Hard-Style and Girevoy Sport, and the roll of both in you future training.  In the mean time, I will be teaching a special kettlebell class on Sunday, February 23rd at noon.  This will be about four hours of learning, where the focus will be more on proper technique and body mechanics, and low on sweat (until the very end of the class, of course….).  I will be posting details soon, but this will be a very inexpensive class, and recommended to anyone who trains at Forteza and wants to take their kettlebell training to the next level!

Read More »

Indian Club Workshop

Join us this Tuesday, August 27th @ 7pm when we welcome Paul Taras Wolkowinski for an introduction to the use of the Indian Clubs. Paul is an Australian instructor and researcher on the use of Indian Clubs, as can be seen at his site .  He will be visiting Forteza next week to check out our Gymuseum, and since he’ll be in town, Paul has offered to teach a short workshop on the use of the clubs.

Paul has a short routine that will work great as a mobility warmup, will help to keep joints healthy and strong, and is an excellent conditioning method for martial artists, particularly those involved in weapon arts.

The class is only $15.  Space will be limited, and we are keeping this in house, so please RSVP to info@fortezafitness.com
Here is a teaser of what you’ll see:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd8QGKThbq8&w=560&h=315]

Read More »

Training with Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena

Training for a Spartan Race Tshirt
As fans and students of Forteza know, we are big believers in the virtues of adventuring racing, especially the “often imitated, never surpassed” Spartan Race – so much so that Forteza’s own Jesse Kulla has been training to become a recognized Spartan Race instructor.

On Saturday, July 13th, the members of Team Forteza attended a group workout with Spartan Race founder Joe De Sena. With just one week before the Illinois Super Spartan Race, we were in the final preparations for the race. For the past two months, the team had been training hard, eating clean (supposedly…), and felt ready and confident. The Spartan group workout promised to be a great measuring stick for how well prepared we truly were. As Joe himself said, if you can get through his workout, the actual race will be a walk in the park.

Bravado aside, we were all thinking the same thing: how much harder can this be compared our weekly group training? What followed was 2 1/2 hours of brutality in the sweltering Summer heat. After a brisk warm-up, the workout started off with a quarter mile of walking lunges. Everyone’s quads were on fire before we reached our destination: an outdoor park that didn’t offer a single bit of shade to protect us from the midday sun. After a bit of bear crawling, we lined up in rows of 22, with each row being about ten people deep. Right away, it was obvious who was actually training for the upcoming Spartan Race, and those who were less prepared. Next came 100 jumping jacks, animal crawls up and down the field, and fireman carries. Not even half way through the workout, and people started to drop out. Then came the 300 burpees.

Getting through an obstacle race takes a team effort, even if that means helping or requesting aid from strangers. Cooperation in the midst of competition, as the saying goes. In ancient Sparta, the mighty phalanx was so effective because the Spartans wouldn’t fight as individuals. Instead, they fought as one, impenetrable unit. Every Spartan protects the the Spartan to his side, Joe emphasized. To hammer in this point, the group had to do all 300 burpees together. If even a single person was out of sync, that burpee didn’t count. So, what was 300 buprees turned out to be a hell of a lot more!

By the time we finished the burpees, and then started the sprints, squats, and planks, the army of would be Spartans had thinned drastically. What were rows of ten, were now rows of two or three. The most any line had left was four Spartans standing strong. And among these elite stood Team Forteza, who stuck it out until the bitter end.

Read More »

After Action Review: Spartan SGX training.

By Jesse Kulla Forteza Fitness, Physical Culture &Martial Arts Personal Trainer and Martial Arts Instructor

Obstacle or “Adventure” racing has become one of the most popular ways to test your mettle and inspire yourself to a new level of training. At the top of the obstacle race food chain is the Spartan Race – a race of pure craziness. When you are going to call yourselves “Spartans” and label your skill levels as “Beast”, “Ultrabeast” and “Death Race”, you pretty much have to be ready to throw down and throw the kitchen sink at competitors. And oh how they do, as you can see at the Spartan Race website.

Image

The pyramid of excellence – and pain – racers can challenge themselves with at a Spartan Race.

As an athlete, I’ve taken part in the Spartan Race for several years now, as a personal trainer, I’ve respected the Spartan’s goals of seeking excellence, and then pushing one level further. Of course, that means that once there was an opportunity to become an actual certified Spartan trainer – the first in Chicago – I wasn’t inspired to go, I had to do it! So, what do the founders of the Ultra Beast put would-be trainers through?

Wow, Where to start? I carried myself to Atlanta, in hopes that the weather would be nice, and so it was. We call that a small mercy, because it would be the only gentle thing that weekend. Got some sleep. Woke up, and got to the venue. It was a fancy gym, with everything you could want in a health club and spa. Not what I expected – I was thinking more like a sand-pit with ropes and stones. Nor did I expect that the first thing I would become acquainted with wouldn’t be the gym, but the first rate conference room. (More on that in a minute.)

Introductions were made, and stories from races that we have all run were shared. I did not win the farthest traveled award, there was a gentleman there form San Francisco. I also met the winner of the 2012 Spartan Death race. It was inspiring and humbling to learn that he had absorbed over 60 hours of punishment to claim that title. Yeah, 60 hours. I have some new standards of “toughness”.

Before we got started, we took a 5 minute burpee test. Yes, that means we got up, paired up, and did “hands off the floor” burpees for 5 minutes, to see who was could hack it. I was not at the bottom of the heap, but 63 was nothing to brag over either, I think 84 was the winning number. Now, I expected something like “drop and give me 5 minutes of burpees” – these are the Spartans, right? But see, like the Spartans of old, who were both warriors of supreme physical skill and tactical warcraft, we were here to hone our minds alongside our bodies.

And that was why we went from burpees to that conference room, where my brain was filled with science data, recovery charts, and the importance of Mental Grit. Vital to all racers, and more so to those who profess to learn the arts of defense, Mental Grit is the power to preserve despite terrible odds, nasty surprises, and truly “long haul” exercises. We then did a little work out before breaking for lunch: about 300 meters of bear crawls, just to whet our appetites. Lunch was all business, talking with other trainers, sharing success stories and work out tips.

Of course, having just filled our bellies, it was time to dive into nutrition as soon as we got back. That was extremely in depth, and changed how I viewed athletic nutrition. After a few hours of that, we broke, and did an hour long “level one” work out, which is just the Spartan way of saying “Good job in the class room, see you tomorrow”. I went back to my hotel and soaked for an hour, rehydrated, and got ready for day two.

Day two was all talk of program design and goal-setting. This was partly a refresher course, but had a lot of insight into helping clients set goals, as well as getting to the root of clients’ health issues. The program design was intensive. We talked for hours about how to “Spartan folks up”. Far and away, this was my favorite portion of the weekend. Skipping lunch, we broke into groups and went running, with one group running their work out, start to finish, and the other two groups sweating through them. Three hours of pure brutality. It was hard, but I got through all of it. Not everyone did. Survival is the first step on the road to excellence!

I now know why the Spartan gym has a full spa – you need it just to go home. After some time in their hot tub, I felt better, I limped to the hotel, packed, returned my car, and spent 18 hours In the airport getting back to good old Chi-town. This was a mind-blowing weekend, and my ideas about training for peak performance will be broken into before SGX and after. My clients are already profiting from the new ideas and strategies, be they there to cut weight, increase functionality or race train, and I can’t wait to share more of the techniques for honing Mental Grit.

Later this summer, I’ll begin my preparation to run the Beast. I’ve beaten the Sprint, and I’ve beaten the Super. Time to go for the gold, and come home with my running shoes or on them. I hope to see you there, because I’ll need a team. Spartans, are you ready? Aroo!

Read More »

2012: The Year in Physical Fitness

FIGHTINGFIT! CHICAGO’S MOST UNIQUE BOOTCAMP

IMG_6749

Martial arts is one of the most effective forms of cross-training available. It combines aerobic and anaerobic exercise with a diverse workout that builds core strength, cardiovascular fitness, hand-eye coordination, balance, and timing. There are plenty of cardio-kickboxing routines out there, but we wanted something a little more challenging, and more in keeping with what Forteza is all about. Thus, FightingFit!

FightingFit! is a solo training program that combines a great way to build confidence, bust stress, and get in touch with your inner warrior through a combination of weapons training, basic boxing skills, body-weight exercises, Kettlebells and “old school” fitness techniques that literally extend back hundreds of years, you can now use the tools of the warrior to build endurance, agility, raw power, reaction time, and fluid motion.

This was something that hadn’t been tried and we weren’t sure how it would do. The good news is that the program has seen a lot of service this year. Students from all of Forteza’s other programs, and some folks who just wanted a new way to get in shape came together to train. A lot of pounds were lost, and no one failed to get stronger. 2013 is off to a great start, and we are looking at new drills, new routines, and yet another season of fighting our way to fitness!

(The FightingFit! program was also a big hit with the media, being showcased in the Chicago RedEye, and with WGN’s Jonathon Brandmeier. Jesse Kulla explained FightingFit to Johnny B on this PodCast (starting at 6:50), and was later invited to demonstrate on his TV show.)

BRING ON THE SPARTANS: ADVENTURE RACING

Forteza had a busy adventure race season, participating in not one, but two Spartan Races!  The Spartan Race is known as the most difficult mud run out there, with only a 70% success rate.  Three of our athletes traveled down to Indiana for a 5K Spartan Sprint in April, and in October, we had a whopping eleven Spartan compete in the 9 mile Super Spartan.  As if the obstacles and mud weren’t enough, the weekend of the Super Spartan also dropped into freezing temps.  However, even through cramping and near hypothermia, the entire team made it through the end.

You can read more about Forteza’s The Road to Sparta on our personal training blog.

TEMPLE BURNING

Bootcamp groupIn order to prepare for the challenge of two Spartan Races, we had to run two Temple Burnings in 2012.  The Temple Burning is an annual tradition of a full day of physical training designed to push each athlete to their breaking point.  Temple Burnings aren’t just for the Spartan Racers; there is a mix of martial arts students, personal training clients, and weekend warriors.  The first Temple Burning was done along the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan, and highlighted such fun activities as uphill burpees, a pull-up contest, and sand sprints.  The second Temple Burning was even harder, and only included the Spartan Race team.  Each athlete had to keep a 25-35 pound kettlebell in their backpacks as we ran through the 5 mile course, which included break out kettlebell circuits, tabata rounds, and the dreaded hill sprints.

Read More »

Forteza, Year One: 2012 in Review

Happy New Year! Not only is it the start of a new year, but we are closing in on the end of our first year together! The concept for Forteza was born from three streams: Chicago Swordplay Guild founder and head instructor Gregory Mele was looking for a way to expand the Guild’s curriculum and training opportunities, and one of the Guild’s senior armizare students, Keith Jennings was looking to open his own personal training and combatives gym. When Tony Wolf offered to let the studio host his growing collection of 19th century exercise apparatus, a brilliant, if madcap idea was born….

To say that it has been a whirlwind of a year would be a gross-understatement. Since opening our doors, we’ve held seven rounds of introductory classes, an Open House, participated in the Ravenswood Art Walk, challenged our students with a Temple Burning work out, ran the Spartan Race, began work on our Clubhouse and introduced three new programs to the Chicagoland area: Bolognese fencing, Bartitsu and our unique Forteza Combatives Method.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9YmTwvK5Qs]

As the “new kids on the block”, we also garnered a fair bit of media coverage. In Crossing Swords: A Revival of Traditional European Martial ArtsNew City journalist Kristen Micek checked out the Chicago Swordplay Guild and then moved a few centuries forward to the 19th century when she covered us in Martial Arts, Victorian Style: Bartitsu at Forteza Fitness Brings Back the Lost Fighting Art of Sherlock HolmesThe Bartitsu Club garnered more attention in: Blast into the Pastand the Chicago Tribune article, Defensive actions: Reviving old-school fighting techniques to win a full-body workout. (You can also catch the accompanying video: Old-school-fitness-becomes-new-trend.)

Forteza’s unique Fighting Fit program was also a big hit with the media, being showcased in the Chicago RedEye: Survival of the Fittest – train like a “Hunger Games” tribute with these offbeat exercises. That cover story caught the attention of WGN’s Jonathon Brandmeier. Jesse Kulla explained FightingFit to Johnny B on this PodCast (starting at 6:50), and was later invited to demonstrate on his TV show.

But probably the best media look at what Forteza was all about came from this light-hearted feature on ABC 7′s 190 North!  

Of course, the media only presents an outside view at a particular moment in time. So as we continue to shake our heads in wonder that a year has passed, here is a 2012 year in review from those who were there…

2012: The Year in Martial Arts

2012: The Year in Physical Fitness

Read More »

The Forteza Clubhouse: funded!

Over the past month we have raised $6970 towards our new library/art gallery/lounge (complete with a secret passage entrance) – well over $1000 more than our target goal!

Many thanks to all who contributed financially (enjoy your perks!) and by sharing the campaign via social media, etc.

Watch this blog for updates as we rehab our dusty old storeroom into a neo-Victorian clubhouse for the ladies and gentlemen of Forteza (and their guests) …

Read More »