“Oh my God, it was breaking our hearts. The toll then was like 22,000 and now it’s over 40,000.
“I thought ‘I can’t watch this and do nothing.’ That was both of our mindsets right there, but we had to figure out what we could do: ‘How could we help?’
“And I thought, ‘Well, I do boxing and she does food. That’s it!’”
That’s a bit of an undersell on his part. Both of them are at the top of the game here.
His wife, Chef Margot Blondet, runs the popular Salar restaurant at the corner of E. Fifth and Brown streets in the Oregon District.
He’s the founder and head trainer of the thriving DMC Boxing Academy on Marco Lane in Centerville. Boxers with roots from around the world train at his gym. So does a wide spectrum of people — men and women, senior citizens to kids — who come just to work out and stay fit.
Meza-Cuadra called Islom Shakhbandarov, the founder of the Ahiska Turkish American Community Center on E. Fifth Street and a pivotal figure in the Turkish community of a few thousand people who now call the Miami Valley their home.
They came up with some ideas and Meza-Cuadra and Blondet quickly cobbled together a plan to give all their proceeds to aid Turkish earthquake victims.
On Sunday, DMC boxers — including a few like Ravshan Akhmabov, Aydin Idrisov, Mohamed Chibi and maybe Khalim Eminov and Aydan Shaibov, all who are local students with Turkish roots — will put on a 13-bout boxing exhibition at the Ahiska Turkish American Community Center beginning at 2 p.m.
The show will include fighters from eight different nations. Two of the area’s better known boxers — Sam Wildenhaus and Jrue King (Andrew Zammit) — will meet in the main event and Danny McGeady, the Dayton businessman and Alter High basketball standout of the mid-1990s, is on the undercard. Tickets are $25.
On Feb. 26, Blondet will host a charity dinner at Salar at 5 p.m. Members of the local Turkish community will serve as guest chefs and prepare specialties from their homeland. Tickets are $139.
Tickets for both or either event can be purchased by going to the Salar website: salarrestaurant@gmail.com. Tickets for the fight show can also be purchased at the door Sunday.
“This all came together in a few days, but it had to,” Meza-Cuadra said. “People are dying right now. We can’t wait.
“I mean you can do something for the long term, too — people are still going to need help down the road — but it’s critical now. People have nothing and they are desperate.”
Along with the ever-rising death toll — Friday morning it was close to 42,000 in Turkey and Syria (36,000 in Turkey alone) — there are the thousands still trapped, most of whom now are presumed dead 11 days after the 7.8 and 7.5 quakes hit.
Experts estimate over 2 million people lost their homes and now they are facing freezing temperatures and little available food or shelter.
“Just $5.00 will feed one victim three meals,” Meza-Cuadra said. “So with our tickets being $25, you’d be feeding five people for a day. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s better than nothing.
“And we’ve got to do something.”
‘We’ve been through a nightmare’
Shakhbandarov was on his way to Turkey on Wednesday evening.
He was going to help in any way he could and also to assess the situation to find the best way donations can go straight to people who need them most.
“We’ve been through a nightmare for more than a week,” he said. “There’s been so much frustration and such a hopeless feeling. It’s been very painful. The devastation is beyond imagination. It’s the worst national disaster in Europe in the past 100 years.
“I’ve been getting hundreds of calls from refugees who are hoping rescue teams will come for them. It’s hard to describe the feelings now. As the days go by, it gets more and more difficult to find people still alive.
“So many of our people in the Dayton area have relatives and friends there who have suffered significant losses. A very close friend of mine lost lots of his family members.”
The Ahiska Turkish community — many of whom came from Russia after decades of oppression and forced displacement from their land — came to Dayton in the past decade and a half and rebuilt their dreams while also helping bolster the city’s economy.
Since the Feb. 6 quakes, the Osman Gaz Mosque on Valley Street has collected clothes and food and they were shipped by the semi load to Chicago, so Turkish Airlines could fly them directly to Turkey.
“I’m thankful to Daniel and Margot for their help,” Shakhbandarov said. “I hope other businesses and civic organizations and people in the community might be able to help, as well. It’s so desperately needed.
“And first and foremost, you can pray for Turkey.”
He said organizations that want to get involved can call him directly at 937-825-1007.
‘It’s just so sad’
“My mom and dad have cried a lot when the news is on and you see all the people killed and all those people trapped — little kids, babies, whole families,” said 16-year-old Aydin Shaibov, a junior at Springboro High School.
“My mom’s aunt was in the earthquake. She’s OK now, but a lot of people aren’t. It’s sad seeing kids my age and kids younger than me and their lives have been taken away.”
Shaibov is one of a handful of ethnic Turks who train at the DMC Boxing Academy.
Aydin Idrisov, who lives in Tipp City, is in fourth grade at Bethel Elementary. Khalim Eminov, who is 17, and 16-year-old Ravshan Akhmabov both go to Springboro.
“I’m just blessed,” Shaibov said. “My parents worked their butts off to bring me to a place like America and give me a good life.”
He said his family emigrated from Russia to Vermont, then New York and finally Dayton.
“My aunt lived here and my grandmother wanted to be close to her daughter,” he said. “In the beginning my dad worked two jobs and my mom used to paint houses.”
Now he said his father has his own trucking business and is a long-haul trucker, as are many local Ahiska Turks.
All of the young boxers said they and their families have not forgotten where they came from.
“It’s been very devastating and the death toll just keeps going up,” said Akhmabov. “It’s just so sad. All the little kids killed and missing and hurt. It happened at nighttime when everybody was sleeping and the whole building just collapsed on them.
“I just can’t imagine that.
“My father and I donated a bunch of clothes and my father donated money, as well,” Akhmabov said. “We just want to help out our people anyway we can.”
Although he’s not scheduled to make his boxing debut until next month in Columbus, he said he wanted to be part of this card:
“I wanted to help out and boxing on this show is a way to do it.”
He especially appreciates Meza-Cuadra for the opportunity:
“Our coach is a great guy. Not a lot of people are doing charity events. He took the time to put it together. It shows he cares.”
Although he said he thinks his dad will be working, Akhmabov hopes his mom might come, though he knows she isn’t thrilled about his new sport.
“She a mom,” he said with a smile. “She says, ‘You have such a nice face and now you’ll just come home with a bloody nose.”
Sunday that won’t bother him.
It would be a badge of honor.
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