After many months of effort, this past Saturday my gym brought a massive part of the LA CrossFit community together to Crush Cancer. This was year 2 of a now annual event to raise money for Stand Up 2 Cancer in hopes to find a cure for a disease that sadly has likely effected us all in some way or another.
Come together we did and raised over $108k! More then doubling our efforts from last year! Obvious shout-outs are well deserved for the owners of Dogtown CrossFit but also for its members as many of whom raised over 4 figures individually! Of course a fund raiser is all about the benjamins but since we can throw down some high fives for a job well done in that arena, I think it is vital to acknowledge what else an event like this accomplished: friendship, community, collaboration, large athletic feats and increased self-confidence. A friend of mine summed it up best in a text message “while working out I could hear people cheering for me and even though I am not not the fittest person in gym, nor will I ever be, I realized people do really care about me and want to support me. That was a nice feeling.” It is a pretty beautiful thing to think a 15 minute workout could touch over 150 participants with an emotion of appreciation for themselves and gratitude of others.
I recognize that the concept of charity is giving but it is also unlimited love and that’s powerful no matter the cause. The realization that theres is space in this world for people to come together for something bigger then themselves, that when united goals can be crushed and lives could be saved; that helping me, her or him could in someway result in helping yourself, well I think that is worth getting behind. So next time someone asks you for your support or donation I highly recommend skipping tomorrows Starbucks run and offering what you can because big or small love is love and we all deserve a hand-out.
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