Hi there teammates,
If you’ve been around the gym this year you may have seen Denee and I doing random burpees whenever the mood strikes us, and maybe you’ve wondered what’s going on? Or maybe you’ve heard the joke when we program 150 burpees in a workout, “looks like Ryan’s behind on his burpees.” Well, there’s a little truth to every joke, and the reason that we’ve been burpee-hounds all year is that we each committed to doing 10,000 burpees in 2018, for a charity called The Courage Foundation that was organized by Mark Divine, the founder of SEALFIT. The Courage Foundation’s main goal is to raise awareness and funds for veterans suffering from PTSD, and one of the ways they are attacking that goal this year is to do 2.2 million burpees. You’ve probably heard the statistic that 22 veterans per day commit suicide, and that’s where the 2.2 million number comes from. Denee’s and my burpee totals will contribute to that overall goal, and we’re proud to be supporting this cause.
This year for Veterans Day, The Courage Foundation is taking on another specific challenge of doing 22,000 burpees in a 24-hour period, which would break the world record for a group of six people in that time. A core group of six SEALFIT coaches and athletes are going to complete these 22,000 burpees, and they are requesting our support in throwing even more burpees into the mix, so that we can make a big push toward that overall 2.2 million goal.
I’ve created a CrossFit Kent Island team, and I’d love to see how many burpees we can complete on Veterans Day, which is Sunday, November 11th (the federal holiday this year will be Monday). Our team goal is to complete 2,200 burpees, which sounds like a big number, but I know we can do it.
One small catch is that Denee and I will be on vacation in the Caribbean that weekend! But that just means hydro-burpees are in order. We’ll have the gym open for a window of time on Sunday for anyone that wants some burpee camaraderie, and we will accept virtual burpees as well!
Check out our team page here, which you can share with your friends if they would like to join in or sponsor your burpee efforts (a flat donation, or maybe 22 cents per burpee?). I’m also going to create a Facebook group page for our team so we know who is in, and we can communicate before and during the burpee-thon!
I realize we are currently in the midst of Barbells for Boobs fundraising, and, like you all, I’m sensitive to too much fundraising, too many requests for cash going out to all of our friends and family. As a general strategy, we try to limit our involvement with charities throughout the year so that we can lend our best efforts to the ones that really resonate with our community. So, while I appreciate anything we can do to raise some money here, if the extent of your involvement is contributing a big long set of burpees on a Sunday morning, I’m totally cool with that. Just let us know what you did so we can add up our total and report back to SEALFIT HQ!
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