Saved by the Barbell Fundraiser Back for Second Year
The CrossFit Foundation’s Saved by the Barbell is back for another year of fitness and fundraising. The second annual summer fundraiser raises money to support school teachers, students, parents and fun CrossFit programs in school and communities across the country.
What is Saved by the Barbell?
Saved by the Barbell is an annual Labor Day fundraiser workout hosted at participating CrossFit affiliates around the world. All proceeds from the workout support school teachers, students, parents, coaches, trainers, and administrators who are doing the hard work of building CrossFit programs in their schools and communities.
Last year, over 250 CrossFit affiliates participated in the inaugural event and the fundraiser hauled in more than $95,000.
How was the money used?
The money went into a fund within the CrossFit Foundation, to which individual schools and districts apply for support. Typical school start-up grants (basic equipment funds and L1s/Kids scholarships) run between $5,000 and $10,000, and CrossFit also gives out a few dozen independent teacher scholarships throughout the year.
By the end of 2019, about 30 school programs, in addition to independent scholarships, will have been funded in 2019 using funds raised by Saved by the Barbell, contributions from CrossFit, Inc. and partnerships with other foundations.
Goals for this year?
This year, they’re looking to double registration to 500 participating affiliates.
“The funds we raise together through this event not only give thousands of kids around the world the chance to participate in a program that will set them on a path of lifelong fitness, but also connect those kids to a community that encourages them to try their utmost, to lift up others around them, and to be confident in their physical abilities without emphasis on how they look or what group or clique they belong to– everyone who has benefited from walking into a CrossFit box wants those same opportunities for the kids in their lives,” Olivia Leonard, Executive Director of the CrossFit Foundation, wrote to Morning Chalk Up in an email.
If you’d like to participate as an affiliate, email savedbythebarbell@crossfit.com to be added to the list of host affiliates, commit to running the Saved by the Barbell WOD in your classes on Saturday, August 31, and encourage the members of your community to register for the event. Or register as an individual for the event.
Registration is $35 and includes a T-shirt and access to the worldwide CrossFitbtwb leaderboard.