{"id":285299,"date":"2026-09-13T20:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285299\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T20:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T20:00:13","slug":"tae-bo-creator-erie-native-billy-banks-awarded-key-to-the-city-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/285299\/","title":{"rendered":"Tae Bo creator, Erie native Billy Banks awarded key to the city"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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>The Tae Bo creator was presented with a key to the city by Mayor Daria Devlin, the first key she\u2019s awarded as mayor.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t<a 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=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\u2018Spirit of Erie\u2019 honors community members making an impact\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blanks led attendees through a Tae Bo class at ASCEND Erie as a part of Bethany Outreach Center\u2019s PA 250 Power and Purpose Wellness Conference.<\/p>\n<p>For Blanks, returning to Erie is about more than recognition; it\u2019s a chance to share his passion and inspire others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank God that I grew up in Erie, because I think if I wouldn\u2019t have grew up in Erie, I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today,\u201d Blanks said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blanks felt extremely honored to come back and receive a key to the city he grew up in.<\/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":285300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[136,138,137],"class_list":["post-285299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285299","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=285299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}