Courtesy photo by HBZ Media Dylan Brock leads the speed and agility aspect of local triaining group P.U.S.H., which is feeding 115 needy families this Thanksgiving.

NASHUA – The boxes are being packed. They are sitting in the garage, in the living room, in the kitchen, basement, anywhere Reggie Perry, a local athletic trainer and martial arts teacher, can fit them in his home in the city.

Why? He’s making a push for a happy Thanksgiving for many of those in need in the area.

The local athletic trainer, who runs an athletic training program for local youths called P.U.S.H. (Produce Unity, Strength and Heart) is in the process of getting all the food donations he’s received to feed 115 needy families in the Nashua area.

Perry, a longtime martial arts and training instructor, has had his “Turkey Brigade” program for the last 15 years, but this will be his biggest undertaking. Earlier this fall, the plan was for enough for just 50 families. But the response was so overhelming, it grew to 115.

All 20-plus Nashua area and northern Massachusetts athletes who are in his program will come to his house on Monday, pack, load and deliver food/meals to a central location from where it will be delivered to the needy families in the area.

Courtesy photo by HBZ Media Nashua's Reggie Perry, executive director of local training group P.U.S.H., is leading an effort to feed 115 local needy families for Thansgiving.

The youths will be broken up into two teams, the middle schoolers packing and another sealing, and both teams will load. The group is partnering with the Nashua Police Athletic League (PAL) Safe Haven on Ash Street, delivering the boxes to them and then they’ll be delivered to the needy families.

The food is donated by participants families, Perry, and others. Perry, as a matter of fact, makes from scratch sweet potato pies as part of the packages. He also has friends and families donating pies and other food.

“I’ve got some very generous people around me,” Perry said. “That’s how this whole thing came into focus.”

This community service component is “just as important as the speed and agility,” said Perry. “That’s for two reasons:

“It’s important that young people learn at an early age the importance of giving back – first and foremost.

Courtesy photo by HBZ Media Nashua's Reggie Perry addresses his students during a P.U.S.H. training session. The organization is donating food to feed 115 needy families this week for Thanksgiving.

“And with community service, when applying to colleges, those schools look at what you’ve done outside the realm of athletics.”

Perry noted one of his athletes that is now at UMass-Lowell had his mother discover that the tipping point on admission there was the “massive amount” of community service he did.

It’s all part of Perry’s plan to develop young athletes in the region. What P.U.S.H.was created for was for exposure to elite level training opportunities, Perry said. He plans on getting some of his athletes – about 10 – to the Michael Johnson Performance Center in Dallas, Texas. A few, including Perry’s son Nasir and Nashua North track standout Issac Smith, have already been there.

“P.U.S.H.was created to give elite training opportunities to the children of northern New England,” Perry said.

He has a 22-year teaching career instructing martial arts in the Waltham, Mass. area and he has a 15-year career as a member of the John Paul National Karate team.

Perry got involved in the art of self defense when he had an altercation during his middle school days growing up in Belmont, Mass.

“I was involved in an altercation when I was needing self defense knowledge and I didn’t have it,” Perry said, saying it was a game that went too far with a friend he’s still close with.

“I swore I would never be in that situation again, feeling helpless. I was 13 then; I’m 51 now and have never been in that situation again.”

Perry wanted to spend more time with his two sons, Nasir and Kobe, so he gave up his Waltham karate teaching to take up training in Nashua. Nasir is a recent Nashua North grad on his way to UMass-Amherst on a partial track scholarship, and Kobe, 12, a middle school student here, is also a member of an elite track club in Brookline, Mass.

Both, obviously, have gotten their training in P.U.S.H. Perry had another business in the area, but when the Nashua Sports Academy was sold to the YMCA, the businesses renting space there had to move.

Perry new that his older son Nasir had barely time to compete and study. So he thought he would create a brand new program that would help local young athletes with their ability to get into college and compete – and that included community service as well as training and academics. Hence, P.U.S.H. was born last winter.

A lot of the work is done with the program’s chief instructor, Dylan Brock, including the introductory workout. “Dylan is the linchpin of our program,” Perry said. “The children work out with him more than they work out with anybody. The program, at its core, is about making your child faster and more agile. Speed, no matter what, translates to everything.”

Now, this isn’t free, there’s an enrollment fee, etc., which offsets the costs of traveling to elite training centers. But P.U.S.H.is officially a non-profit entity. Perry also sets up a college savings program for the athletes, taking a portion of the “tuition” the athletes pay and invests it, and if they go through the program, get accepted into college, and do not get into any trouble, they get a rebate when they leave for college.

Sessions are broken down into categories, speed, strength and agility, martial arts, health and wellness, and, most interesting, finance and literacy.

But a key for Perry is community service, something he did with his martial arts program in Waltham. An organization there would find needy families that he could donate to.

In fact, Perry would take Nasir and Kobie into Boston to the Pine Street Inn to volunteer. “I wanted them to see – when you think you have it bad, there are people who have it worse than you do,” he said. “I wanted my children to understand they are fortunate to have a home and a roof above your head, many things that we take for granted. In doing that, I needed something on a larger scale.”

So he came up with the Turkey Brigade, “and it’s been a staple in my life since 2006.”

But Perry has wanted to expand his community service programs. One parent who has two sons in the program has suggested P.U.S.H.conduct a Toy Drive.

So that is next. And in January, there will be a bowling fundraiser to help buy a van to do shopping for a senior citizens home located in the southern New Hampshire region.

“It’s something we can do on a regular basis than just one or two times a year,” Perry said.

As for the athletic nature of the program, regular workouts in all components are required. The speed workouts with Brock are very detailed.

“He makes sure their mechanics are sound,” Perry said. “You can’t be fast with poor mechanics. Every three months, he digitally times their 40-yard dash. That’s the barometer to measure speed in all sports. Digital makes it official. Anything hand timed is unofficial.”

Brock, Perry said, isn’t hard, “but he’s not a pushover. He’s very up front with them. If you want to be the best (practice) athlete, good luck with that. That’s not what he’s here for. He’s here to make you the best athlete in college.”

The second most attended and popular workout is the strength and conditioning, and that’s done at a facility in Salem. While Perry lives in the city and operates some of P.U.S.H.here, he spread some of the rest at other facilities in nearby areas such as Salem and Hooksett.

Before COVID, Perry was holding his program’s finance-literacy seminars at Nashua North. That is one of the other aspects, along with the community service, that Perry considers essential.

“I think it’s important,” he said, “the earlier you teach children about finance, credit, bank accounts, the earlier you educate them the better they”ll be in life.”

Perry tells his athletes a story of when he was 18 at UMass Amherst and overspent on a credit card.

“Credit card companies throw credit cards at you,” he said, adding that was the case with him. “Not knowing the importance of paying the bill on time, being responsible with a card, I went charge crazy.”

And he racked up an $1800 bill in a few months. His mother, when she saw the bill in the spring semester of his freshmen year, was furious, and the bill was eventually paid and the card cancelled. He wasn’t allowed another card until his junior year.

“I tell that story so you can avoid the pitfalls of what can happen to you in college,” Perry said. “Everyone (of all the ages) takes the course because you need all the hours to qualify to go to Texas or California (the elite training centers). You can’t exempt yourself from any of these sessions.”

One of Perry’s top clients is Nashua North track standout and football running back Issac Smith.

“He’s something,” Perry said. “He’s going places.”

Perry predicts big things for Smith if there’s an outdoor high school track season, especially in sprints and long jump. Which leads to what Perry has had to do with the pandemic.

When the first wave hit in March, Perry had just opened his doors for P.U.S.H., and one of his key indoor facilities that he was using in Tyngsborough, Mass. had temporarily shut down.

But in June he was able to use the North track.

“The pandemic hurt from March to May,” Perry said, “and that’s when it gave me time to work on the website.

“Since then we’ve been very steady. We socially distance out.”

And split into groups. The middle school age athletes will work on one side of a facility, the teens on the other side. Or some inside while some outside. Some sites they use require temperature checks, and maks are used when the athletes are in the common areas but if allowed they don’t wear them when working out. But they have the option.

“We’ve been very responsible,” he said. “I sat down like everybody else, but we’re happy to be up and running.”

But the one thing the athletes don’t have the option on is voluneteering.

“They love it,” Perry said, adding that the parents especially love the fact the charity work is part of the program.

“The kids have embraced it through their parents. My place is the drop spot, the kids have been over, making their donations, it’s been great. Nobody has complained about this part of what we’re doing.”

And neither will the 115 families who should be well-fed this Thanksgiving, thanks to a push by P.U.S.H.

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