Foster Fit Seeks to Provide Foster Youth With CrossFit Gym Membership

Starting November 9, athletes around the world can compete in the first-ever online Foster Fit competition, a fundraiser to provide children in the child welfare system with a CrossFit gym membership. 

Why it matters: According to the Children’s Rights organization, there are nearly 424,000 children in foster care on any given day in the U.S. In 2019, this number amounted to 672,000 for the year. Foster Fit is aiming to give these teens and children a steady, nurturing community. 

• “Evidence indicates that children and adolescents fare best when raised in stable homes with nurturing environments who respond to their needs and provide reasonable structure,” writes Foster Fit on their competition page. “Children and teenagers also benefit from safe and reasonable child care, educational and neighborhood settings with exposure to normalizing activities.”
• “CrossFit provides a consistent & nurturing community, which has proven to improve the mental and physical health of adolescent teens and adults,” they continue. “Foster Fit will give teens in foster care access to the same love and support that we receive from our CrossFit friends & community.”

The program also encourages a healthy lifestyle, fighting the prelevancy of obese and overweight children in the child welfare system. 

Foster Fit scholarships will last one year and include shoes as well as a gym membership. The organization is still in the early stages of planning affiliate and youth partnerships, and is currently looking for gyms interested in the program. 

The details: Foster Fit is a three-event online competition open to any athlete, anywhere in the world. All workouts will be released on their Instagram page on November 9, and after completing the events, competitors are able to log their scores through Wodify Arena from November 16 -21. 

• Foster Fit is a combined unisex individual competition – men and women will be on the same leaderboard – with RX and scaled divisions. (All of the movements needed for each division are listed on their Instagram page.) 
• Competitors are required to have a judge, who, like athletes, can sign up on the Wodify app. 
• The fee to compete is $50 for athletes and free for judges.
• If able, Foster Fit is asking all competitors to go live on Instagram as they complete workouts. 

For those who don’t wish to compete, but still want to help out, donations are being accepted through Wodify App registration or on the Foster Fit’s GoFundMe page. Currently, their goal is $10,000. Funds raised will go both to scholarships and to help Foster Fit form a nonprofit to expand its work.