Velsen-Noorders have squatted a building to start their own gym. About thirty young people have been looking for a suitable room for their martial arts for some time, but were unable to find anything despite an earlier signature campaign. Cor Weststrate, father of one of the boys, came across the vacant, hidden building on the Grote Houtweg or Koningsweg a few weeks ago and immediately set to work.
Cor tried to find out the owner of the building, but in vain. Then he put in a new lock himself and got to work. A lot of DIY and cleaning work later, the first outlines of a dojo are already starting to appear. Until yesterday someone from the municipality came knocking and summoned Cor and his associates to stop the renovation. Since then, work has been halted.
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Previously, his son Wes, a tall shy 20-year-old boy with great martial arts aspirations, was trying to find a place for the dojo through a signature campaign. That attempt failed. But father, son and about thirty Velsen-Nordic youths who practice sports fanatically do not want to give up.
Cor thinks that his own bad reputation with the municipality and the police does not help. “They know me and Jimmy van Iperen, who trains the boys, and they say, ‘Those are criminals.’ And then they don’t want to do anything for us.”
While according to Jimmy they do a good job for the community: “If they join our group, we also keep an eye on them. I recently said to the boys: ‘If I hear that you are doing some shit this holiday weekend, then you are for me.'”
The men hope that they can continue to use the building. Cor: “Wes and other boys paid a lot of money for the wood that is in it now.”