In January 2015, GI Joe Charles suffered a stroke during martial arts training. He lost his speech and his right side was paralyzed. Prior to the stroke, the 6-foot-1, 310 pound Charles had run a boot camp for 15 years at the Manhattan Beach Pier. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning his booming voice could be heard encouraging his students with shouts of “Give me 20. And then some.”
Following his stroke, Charles responded to the outpouring of support from all corners of the community by promising he would be back.
At first he was limited to talking on the phone from home in a largely unintelligible garble. Then he began visiting the pier and former students in a wheelchair, still talking in a garble and searching for words. Then he began walking with a walker. Then with a cane. Slowly the words came back.
Last Wednesday afternoon at the foot of the Manhattan Beach pier, to an assembly of city and chamber officials and students, Charles bellowed once again, “GI Joe is back. And Then some.”
The occasion was a City of Manhattan Beach proclamation presented to him by Mayor Tony D’Errico and a chamber ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the resumptions of his workout classes.
“Coming back is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I couldn’t have done it without all of you,” Charles said.
To learn more about the GI Joe Boot Camp visit mbbootcamp.com. ER
