By John RittenhouseWhen a person provides a service to the same community for a quarter of a century, it’s easy to lose track of the number of individuals who have benefited from your product.Wes Grieme is not your ordinary businessman, but he struggled to come up with an answer when asked how many individuals have passed through the doors of the Luverne Tae Kwon Do Club over the past 25 years."That’s a really good question," he said."I’m guessing we’ve had several thousand people come through our doors in one way or another over the last 25 years, but I don’t have an exact total. All I know for sure is we’ve had more than 100 black belts come from our group, and a number of them have reached the levels of second, third and fourth degree."The total number of students who have received martial arts instruction from Grieme isn’t important to this story. The length of time he has made Tae Kwon Do instruction available in this community is what’s notable.When the month of August rolls around, it will mark the 25th year Grieme has offered his service in Luverne."That wasn’t the original plan," Grieme insists. "It just worked out this way. We went through a few slow years, but once we got established, things have gone pretty well over here."Actually, Grieme didn’t plan on offering instruction in Luverne at all.When the DeKalb, Iowa, native was asked to move to town when he was a sales representative for Monsanto in 1981, Grieme was pleased to find out Tae Kwon Do was being offered through Luverne Community Education at that time.He got involved in the sport as a college student at Iowa State University and decided to participate in the workouts that were being instructed by Jack Hensel in Luverne at that time.Once Hensel saw Grieme’s determination and the work ethic during those workouts, the instructor offered an observation that shaped the next 25 years of Grieme’s life."I was used to working out pretty hard back then, and Jack said I should be the one teaching this class," Grieme recalled.He took the observation to heart and started instructing the LCE program in August of 1981 for two years before starting his own gig in 1983.He opened the Luverne Tae Kwon Do Club in the building that now houses FGL Commodities and moved it to the basement of its present location (113 1/2 East Main Street) three months later.Grieme switched jobs (he has worked as a technical sales specialist for Bayer Crop Science since 1983) the same year he opened his new club, but he didn’t give up on his commitment to instruction.It was in the 1980s when he groomed some black belts who would later become instructors. This allowed Grieme to open extensions of the Luverne Tae Kwon Do Club in Pipestone, Lismore, Redwood Falls. Garretson, S.D., and in Algona and West Bend, Iowa.Grieme offered hands-on instruction at the Lismore and Redwood Falls extensions of the club, while his former students provided instruction at the other clubs.The Luverne Tae Kwon Do Association (LTKD) now includes clubs in Sioux Falls, St. Paul, Algona and West Bend, as well as the Luverne club, which consists of 50-plus students this summer.Since starting his own family in 1996 (Sheri, his wife of 10 years; Parker, 9; Gabrielle, 5, Taryn, 11 months), Grieme has cut back on his involvement in the martial arts to his instruction in Luverne on Monday and Tuesday nights.As a sixth-degree black belt (he was Luverne’s first registered black belt in 1981), Grieme does oversee belt testing sessions at the clubs connected to the LTKDA at different times during the year. Other than those types of special events, he now spends most of his free nights at his family’s home (between Brandon and Valley Springs.)Grieme said he considers the Luverne Tae Kwon Do Club and its members to be an extension of his own family, and he doesn’t plan on severing his ties with his second family any time soon."Some people live a martial arts life, and it has become a big part of my life. It’s kind of like having two different families," he said."To be an instructor for another 25 years might be too big of an expectation, but I can’t say for certain that I won’t be one, either."