Last year, students at Absolute Martial Arts broke 589 wooden boards for charity. This year, they broke a whole lot more.

“We’ve always struggled to get to 500,” said owner and instructor Bruce Sylvia. “This year, I had to drive back to Rhode Island because we ran out of wood.”

On Saturday afternoon, martial arts students broke 839 boards, which means that they collectively raised $8,390 to go toward the Devin Laubi Foundation as part of the annual “Backyard BBQ and Break-a-Thon,” which benefits a different local charity each year.

Sylvia said that they’d expected to get even more in fundraising from the students as well as through the various events at the barbecue, such as the dunk tank and the “pie-a-coach,” which saw various instructors from Absolute get whip-creamed.

“It feels great,” joked instructor Ross Perry. “It’s fun though.”

“I think my favorite game is when we get to pie the coaches in the face,” said greenbelt Quincy Antunes, 10.

At around 1 p.m., countless students began a rapid fire breaking of the boards. Each student had raised $10 per board they broke, all of which went to the Laubi Foundation, an organization started by the family of Devin Laubi, a 6-year-old boy who lost his life to an aggressive, cancerous brain tumor.

“Everything goes back to the kids,” said Devin’s father, Andy, of the charity that gives to families of kids fighting cancer. “Some of these families are destitute, they have no way of buying food. You send someone $2,500 — it’s like a gift from heaven to them.”

“This is the biggest event we’ve ever had. It was huge,” added Sylvia, noting the coaches also broke 120 boards themselves for a grand total of 961 on the day.

“We both did 20,” said student Emma Gidley, of her and her brother Jake’s efforts.

Laubi said that if it weren’t for efforts like the one held at Absolute, he and his wife, Robin, who he said does most of the legwork, wouldn’t be able to donate to families in need.

“We get so much grassroots support,” he said.