Ripple effect

Farshad Azad views life through metaphors. Perhaps this is because he is well-versed in Western, Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophy. Perhaps it’s because he’s had a lot of time for reflection. Perhaps it’s because the martial arts he’s mastered teach emotional lessons through physical actions—a metaphoric means of enlightenment.

Whatever the reason, Azad can look at a pool of water and see the whole world in front of him.

“In a still pond, you can see the reflection of the sky and the trees. It can be good and bad,” he said. “The calmness teaches me I need to be calm—but from another angle, it reminds me of apathy. Water needs to have flow, or it stagnates.

“The positive ripple effect is what I’m interested in.”

This is why Azad devotes so much of his time and energy to reaching out to his neighbors. He participates in groups as diverse as the Noon Exchange Club, Sunshine Kids, Chico State’s University Advisory Board and its Public Safety Commission, Ident-a-Child and the Persian Cultural Foundation. He has been busy this week with the Basket Brigade, a program he started to provide Thanksgiving dinners to Chicoans hit by hard times.

“Farshad is a great guy and is a giver,” Chico Chief of Police Bruce Hagerty wrote in an e-mail—a sentiment echoed by Chico State President Paul Zingg: “He is a local hero for all the community service he provides. The values he teaches through martial arts—respect, integrity, honor—translate extremely well into the example he provides in our community.”

Azad, 44, was born in Tehran, Iran. His father was a judge; his mother was a school principal. He came to the United States at age 15—on his own—to get a Western education. By then, he’d already studied martial arts for four years.

He went to high school in Kansas and moved from Atchison to Lawrence to attend Kansas University. “I’m so glad I chose Chico,” he said, relaxed but intent in the new Walnut Street facility for Azad’s Martial Arts Family Center. “It’s such a wonderful town.”

But it’s also a town with people in need—children in particular. The Sunshine Kids program reaches out to kids with mental and physical disabilities. Ident-a-Child has made 100,000 DNA and photo records in Chico to help law-enforcement officials find lost or abducted children.

Through his academy, Azad coordinates an annual drive to provide back-to-school supplies to underprivileged kids, and last week his students donated 300 sweatshirts to Rosedale Elementary. He frequently gives away martial-arts classes to at-risk youth as well as to the Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butte County.

“Every time we ask, he says yes,” said Kate Cahill, of Big Brothers Big Sisters. “He’s just good to the core.”

The idea for the Basket Brigade started when he was a poor graduate student. A friend took him out to Thanksgiving dinner at Jack’s Diner. Seated at the counter, he overheard the conversation of a mother and her three kids at the table behind him. The family couldn’t afford turkey dinners, so their “feast” featured hot dogs.

“I made a mental note,” he said, and when he found himself in a stronger financial situation, Azad put together a dinner basket for a needy family.

Now in its 15th year, the Basket Brigade raises about $7,000 annually to provide 250 dinners, serving up to 1,500 people.

“This is not charity work,” Azad stressed. “It’s a gift from people in the community for people whose lives are tough right now, showing this community truly cares. But there’s an expectation. When people say ‘thank you,’ I tell them the only way to thank me is when they are in a position of affluence they do the same thing for someone else.”

That strikes at the heart of Azad’s approach, the “positive ripple effect.” Someone who gets one basket can never get another. “I’m not into handouts—I want to help someone get back on their feet and help others.”

Which brings us to another water metaphor.

When Azad was 4, he waded into the pond in his backyard. He saw hundreds of bees flailing across the surface, so he grabbed a leaf and began helping the insects within arm’s length, one by one, out of the water. His father scoffed at the effort, noting there were millions of such bees in pools across Tehran. “To this one it makes a lot of difference,” Azad recalls replying.

“My philosophy is not to save everybody,” he said. “I’m not in a position to help everyone. If I can help the ones I can reach, then I will.”