SEATTLE — Inside this ring, there are athletes training to make it to the next level, possibly even the Olympics. They're in the right place, with a USA Boxing Nationals alum as the owner of Arcaro Boxing Gym. They're also in good hands with coach Tricia Arcaro Turton, who knows boxing is both expensive and labor intensive. That's why she created the Clara M. Carlucci Foundation, named after her grandmother, to help athletes bridge that gap.
"We want to help local athletes, PNW athletes, Arcaro athletes to have the opportunity to make it to the Olympics if they want to," Arcaro Turton said. "It's incredibly expensive and it's incredibly labor intensive and a lot of folks in boxing don't have the money and they don't have the time if they're having to work to get the money, so we want to help them have better opportunities, take care of their finances, give them the travel opportunities, and get those chances to compete at national levels."
Opportunities are even more sparse for women. She teamed up with coach Kim Bao of the Queens Dojo to host an international women's tournament the weekend of October 19 in Tacoma.
"There's actually not a lot of women's tournaments out there," Bao said. "It's actually hard to bring women into a space to compete together and we wanted to create a tournament that would be successful and honor the fact that women need space to compete."
Arcaro Turton said there's a lack of visibility for women's boxing, which hurts their chances at the national level.
"We all know we're good at it. We all know we're exciting to watch but the opportunity isn't always given to have the space to do our thing in it," she said. "We want to make sure that women have the opportunity and have the space to showcase what we've known all along, that we're unbelievable at sports."
The goal, they said, would be for this tournament to be a fundraiser for the CMC foundation. That would allow for more women to find support as they climb the ranks of competition.
"The whole idea of the tournament is just to help support, like all of the women that are traveling have had to do something to get there, and so we're hoping by having the foundation forefront, and then being able to drive things through the tournament, we're able to support more athletes who are coming up through the ranks," Bao said. "Coming up through the ranks, one, finding competition is hard, two, finding funds to travel is hard, and so we just really want to bridge that gap so we have more women in the space."
As coaches, both Arcaro Turton and Bao find purpose in helping people through their journeys. This new chapter of developing the CMC foundation is furthering their drive.
"Our whole purpose for living is to be of service to others. There really doesn't seem to be another purpose to me. As a coach, and as a community member myself, we have to be of service to one another. It's why I formed this gym," Arcaro Turton said. "This whole space was meant to be of service. If I didn't live in a capitalistic society where I had to make money, I think I'd still do the same thing."
The International Women's Tournament is a two-day sanctioned event at the Eastside Community Center in Tacoma on Saturday October 19 and Sunday October 20. This tournament will also feature all female officiating staff. For more information, visit www.claramcarluccifoundation.org