Peter Westbrook Foundation
In 1987, at the suggestion of Peter’s friend, Tom Shepard, fencing clinics for inner-city kids were offered. The Peter Westbrook Foundation (PWF) was officially launched on a cold Saturday morning in February 1991 at the New York Fencers Club, which was located on West 71st Street in Manhattan. The first official class for the PWF Saturday Fencing Program consisted of six kids, “all of them our own relatives or those of our friends.” Within two years the program grew to 40 youth, then 100. In the 2009/2010 school year, the PWF served over 400 youth from the underserved communities across New York City.
The Peter Westbrook Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-operating foundation that is dedicated to utilizing the sport of fencing as a vehicle to develop life skills in young people from underserved communities. With a specific focus on engaging New York City’s low and moderate-income youth, PWF teaches young people good sportsmanship in addition to developing their critical thinking skills, strengthening their self-confidence, encouraging the maintenance of an active and healthy lifestyle and supporting academic achievement.
The Foundation has evolved from solely providing introductory fencing classes to offering academic enrichment and advanced fencing instruction for youth who demonstrate exceptional talent for the sport.
The program’s staff has included world-class coaches (Csaba Elthes, Boris Lieberman, Rotchild Magloire, Yuri Gelman, Max Catala and Aladar Kogler) medalists and Olympians (Michael Lofton, Robert Cottingham, Herb Raynaud, Eric Rosenberg, Lazarro Mora and Donald Anthony) and PWF students Ahki Spencer-el, Keeth Smart and his sister Erinn Smart, Kamara James, Ivan Lee, Benjamin Bratton, Nzingha Prescod and Epiphany Georges.
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