{"id":285251,"date":"2026-09-13T18:01:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285251\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T18:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T18:01:24","slug":"tae-bo-creator-erie-native-billy-banks-awarded-key-to-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285251\/","title":{"rendered":"Tae Bo creator, Erie native Billy Banks awarded key to the city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Billy Blanks returned to his hometown of Erie this weekend, sharing the passion for fitness that made him a household name. On Saturday, the city honored his legacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Tae Bo creator was presented with a key to the city by Mayor Daria Devlin, the first key she&#8217;s awarded as mayor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:&#039;Spirit of Erie&#039; honors community members making an impact;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/spirit-of-erie-honors-community-members-making-an-impact\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0&#8216;Spirit of Erie&#8217; honors community members making an impact\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Blanks led attendees through a Tae Bo class at ASCEND Erie as a part of Bethany Outreach Center&#8217;s PA 250 Power and Purpose Wellness Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For Blanks, returning to Erie is about more than recognition; it&#8217;s a chance to share his passion and inspire others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Thank God that I grew up in Erie, because I think if I wouldn&#8217;t have grew up in Erie, I wouldn&#8217;t be where I am today,&#8221; Blanks said. &#8220;I always wanted, as a kid, somebody to inspire me, and I know if young people, older people got that chance to hear somebody that can talk to their heart, I believe that it can help change their life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Blanks felt extremely honored to come back and receive a key to the city he grew up in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Blanks returned to his hometown of Erie this weekend, sharing the passion for fitness that made him&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[117437,117435,136,138,137,117436],"class_list":["post-285251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-bethany-outreach-center","tag-billy-blanks","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-tae-bo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}