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Meet Kawika Henderson of Golden Titan Sport & Fitness: Surprise

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kawika Henderson.

Kawika, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Hi, my name is Kawika Henderson and I’ve been a Surprise resident for over 20 years!!! I’ve seen Grand & Bell Rd go from a 4-way intersection to what it is today. Also, I have seen the Orange groves and the flower fields slowly disappear and transition into the communities that we have today. That amazes me. This is how I started. I was raised to always stick up for people that couldn’t stick up for themselves.  In high school, I came to the realization this is want councilmen, mayors and senators do daily. Speak on the behalf of people that couldn’t always voice their opinion on issues involving their cities, states or nation although I felt this desire to I was unsure of the steps on how to achieve this dream.

During my years of playing College football and the NFL Free agent combines, I started an internship at the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Phoenix, Arizona. I became a voice for veterans with disability and their families. My assistance as a Veterans Social Worker, disability Claims developer and suicide prevent helped these families through tough times that were unimaginable for many. I wanted to help as many Veterans and families as possible every day I came in. That’s when this internship turned into a promotion to a Civil Service Permanent Career Status. For five years, I worked with Families from all diverse economic and social backgrounds. After becoming one of the youngest employees to achieving my GS level, I felt there were other opportunities to help families and individuals directly in my community.

I’ve noticed the lack of sports-specific development along with information to increase the chances to get our youth athletics to university play in Surprise and the neighboring west valley. I decided this is the direction and path I wanted to start in order to help our communities’ health, and the development of programs to help our young athletes excel. Typical businesses in a trade like this can charge hundreds a month which is not ideal for our communities’ working class and I wanted to make it as affordable as possible. To not only help develop these athletes but to also involve the families by apply huge discounts if they joined together. This was part of the initial mental support aspects we’ve developed to help a family unit grow and become even more encouraging for each other.

Developing Physical Strength was a primary focus but not the only focus. Mental strength and encouragement are also huge components in our style or training. Whether it was dealing with our City of Surprise Police Department, AZ Special Olympics, Dysart High School, FBI Counter Terrorism Unit, or our professional Athletes from the LA Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, New York Giants, Milwaukee Brewers and so many others, as well as our student-athletes, families while fundraising for many nonprofits. Our goal was commuting to building a better and STRONGER Surprise.

While committing to the success of others through fitness, I realized that what I was already doing in the community was the start of what I wanted to do when I was younger by being a voice for those that needed to be heard while encouraging them all the way through. This is how I knew I was going for a run as a Candidate for The City of Surprise Councilman of District 5.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We all face challenges daily. On the football field, we called this being prepared to overcome adversity. During my years at the Department of Veterans Affairs I achieved a career status. The task wasn’t your average full-time job. It was extremely challenging and at the end of a long workday I went straight to night school at the college in downtown Phoenix to finish the night.

By helping Veterans and their families from finding help with burial Cost to Disability compensation, It developed in me a Strength of Empathy to motivate and encourage while working with veterans with various disability including PTSD and Mental struggles; into developing a guide and philosophy towards helping regular everyday Athletes to Professional Athletes on a physical aspect. While working at the Department of Veteran Affairs to owning my own Sports performance gym, I’ve overcome adversity from a major car accident as well as career-ending sports injuries. These surgeries led to opening more doors of understanding of when times are tough and things seem bleak, we need to dig even more deep and find the drive to think outside of the box.

Sympathy for others is very much needed but Empathy for others is a much greater contribution. Through my injuries and the difficult road of coming back from surgery, I was able to develop methods of training to help many in similar situations. From a member of my gym losing his arm in a motorcycle accident to regaining his self-worth and confidence to become a fighter and Nationally renowned athlete to a member having the dream to become a State Highway Patrol Officer but unable to complete a push-up because of being overweight. He lost close to 200lbs and passed the Physical test to achieving his goal of becoming a State trooper. These examples show my commitment to  excellence and to the people I serve.

These circumstances and opportunities helped me understand of always being in a state of preparedness and having a positive and encouraging attitude to be resilient. Meeting the needs of our members but still comply with our state and national mandates, I developed the ZOOMWOD HomeWOD, Which is a Live Video Workout, which keeps everyone fit and in touch.

Please tell us more about your work.
I based my candidacy upon being an Arizonian and City of Surprise Native. Observing and considering the continued growth of our young families to mature active adults, Seniors in Surprise and expansion of our business districts, communities and neighborhoods, my most important agenda is to ensure the Safety and Response time of our Emergency personnel to these areas. Prioritizing Safety response time for our Police and Fire as well as developing a Town square for Small businesses will always remain my number one priority. On the other hand our current district five councilman David Sanders within the last year has voted against the additional Safety Response parameters for our Fire Department and Police.

I fully support Gov. Ducey’s Executive Order 2020-21 dated 04/06/2020. Here are also some of my main issues that I will either initiate or support:

Number 1 Stated previously response time for emergencies.
Number 2 Maintain lower or reasonable property tax rates.
Number 3 Developing the Town Square for local businesses with Community involvement and engagement from our Chamber of Commerce and City Hall. Promote Easy connection opportunities in the community and offer Small business Support in our designated Economic opportunity zones. This will increase revenue and allow residents to live work and play here.

Number 4 I see Surprise Supporting its own youth not just through state and local community grants but support from the Chamber of commerce. This act and my City Education I initiative will support public school and homeschool children’s curricular and extracurricular pursuits. This City and Community Supported Education Stimulus. Is a program that will not increase taxes in any way and will engage our community to root for our young students to succeed. We want to give our young adults a head start in life.

I want to see the City of Surprise continually grow in a way that is business and family-friendly. Our motto is Live here, Work here and Play here.

Please take a look at my website! If you’d like to get to know me more, as well as specifics to my vision for Surprise. I’d like to build support for small businesses, support our first responders, bring in more careers, create more accessible entertainment, enhance/create competitive sports programs and extracurricular activities for all Surprise residents while staying committed to our small-town feel.

Above all things what truly makes me proud in what I do;
1) Seeing others succeed and realizing it was achieved through hard work and being a part of it.
2) Seeing families achieve their dreams and stay strong by praying, working, encouraging one another.
3) This motivates me even more because of dedicated hard work, achieving verifiable results, continues to make me proud of what I help others accomplish. All of the medals that I won through various competitions does not compare to the feeling that I experience in helping others achieve their dreams.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Being Successful to me on a business level as well and a human being is the same. Being able to provide support and encouragement to as many individuals as I can. Reach people to find their motivation and self-confidence is key for me. Being apart of something bigger in an effort for Good. I see myself as having a simple lifestyle to connect more with all people from various ethnic and social backgrounds. Success to me isn’t necessary always an increase in monetary benefits. I believe health is wealth when it comes to the mental and physical. It’s the benefit you see when you can help people have a better quality of life on all levels.

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