Affiliate of the Month: All Level CrossFit Doing All the Good Deeds in Ontario
For John Mack, the owner of All Level CrossFit in Windsor, Ontario, a focus on inclusivity has led his community to offer fitness to those who really need it while raising thousands of dollars for charity in the process.
- “At our core, we believe that what we do here can be super powerful and can change lives, and shouldn’t be restricted to certain demographics,” says Mack, who opened All Level CrossFit in 2013.
The details: Mack and his community have focused on two specific demographics in the last decade — youth and also adults with intellectual disabilities.
All Level CrossFit has a thriving kids and teen program — more than 300 kids have come through the program in the last decade — that caters to youth who don’t necessarily identify as athletes.
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- “The kids and teens who come in are usually not looking to use CrossFit as a way to get better at their chosen sport,” Mack says. “They’re mostly kids who haven’t found something that resonates with them in terms of sports or athletics, and they don’t have an outlet for physical activity.”
Mack finds nothing more rewarding as a coach than watching them “latch onto CrossFit” and seeing fitness and healthy living slowly become an important part of their lives.
- “Normalizing fitness, normalizing being in shape, normalizing eating well, normalizing moving your body with intent […] that’s probably the most important thing, so that working out is not this foreign thing or this thing that’s not fun. They come in here and work hard and see the benefits of that,” Mack says.
In addition to youth programming, All Level CrossFit has been offering three classes a week for the last six years for athletes with intellectual disabilities, particularly Down syndrome.
Today, there are 18 people in the program between the ages of 18 and 35.
Worth noting: One of the athletes who started in their first class for those with intellectual disabilities is 23-year-old Julia Lane, the 2021 and 2023 CrossFit Open Intellectual Division winner.
On top of being the two-time Open winner, Lane, who has Down syndrome, holds multiple swimming world records.
Finally, during the pandemic, All Level CrossFit became the first international outpost for The Phoenix, the nonprofit that provides fitness, specifically CrossFit, to thousands recovering from substance use disorder.
And they raise money, too: On top of offering classes for hundreds of youth not otherwise into sports, adults with intellectual disabilities, and people in recovery from addictions, the All Level CrossFit community is also dedicated to raising money for causes they believe in.
- In the last two years, Mack’s 140 members have helped raise $10,000 for the Gloria Morgan Breast Cancer Research Scholarship through a fitness competition they host at the gym.
- Further, they also raise money each year for the Fight Like Mason Foundation, a charity for childhood cancer started by a local couple who lost their son to cancer.
- Finally, each year they fundraise for the Chasing Hazel Foundation, a charity started by one of their members that supports those with Down syndrome.
One more thing: On top of all the good deeds they do, Mack also finds the time to promote the CrossFit Open to his community as hard as any gym in the world. This year, 108 of his 140 members competed in the Open. Twenty-three went on to qualify for Quarterfinals, including a woman in the 65-plus division.
The big picture: Mack recognizes the power of CrossFit for everyone, and his ultimate goal is to reach as many people as possible, especially those who might never otherwise benefit from it.
“We want to have as big a cross-section of people at the gym as we can because we just think that CrossFit is really special and we want to be able to share that with as many people as possible,” Mack says. “We want to give the opportunity to as many demographics as we can.”
More Community Stories
Check out these other stories from around the CrossFit community:
- Kanna Fitness “All Abilities” Classes Promote CrossFit for Everyone
- Don’t Call It a Comeback: Charley McAvoy Training for 100-Mile Race Only Months After Cancer Surgery
- From a Stroke in Utero to a Place on the CrossFit Games Podium: Amea Reyna’s Story
Featured image: @alllevelcrossfit / Instagram