Keep Them on the Mat

I’m Elzabieta Kosmicki, Branch Chief of Enshin Crestone. In 2020 we opened a martial arts–based youth program in Crestone so young people here could have what the art gave us: physical discipline, leadership, and a room that expected them to show up. Enshin was the seed. Cottonwood Restoration grew from that same floor.

As families came, the need got larger than class times. At-risk youth, working parents, and unschooling households were asking for embodied excellence and a supportive place to grow. We expanded into nature immersion, camps, and year-round enrichment—still rooted in self-mastery, now also in land, food, and ecological belonging. Cottonwood became the nonprofit that could hold scholarships, transportation, and programs Enshin alone could not sustain.

Our process has not changed. We work close to each student so they can find strength, purpose, and the kind of leadership that makes a rural kid want to stay and contribute. Martial arts remains the spine: focus, executive function, confidence, and a safe third space in a county marked by isolation, poverty, and too few year-round options.

This campaign

September 1–15 is Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day. I am raising for the Enshin Crestone youth martial arts scholarship program. Gifts can be matched dollar for dollar.

This is still the only year-round youth program in our corner of Saguache County. Scholarships cover training, gear, rides, testing, and the chance to travel and compete beyond the valley. Too many students would lose their place on the mat because of cost. A matched gift doubles a scholarship, a ride, or a competition trip—and keeps the door Enshin opened, and Cottonwood now holds, from closing on the next kid who needs it.