Burpees for Boobies

This summer, I increased my fundraising goal for the year to $10,000. I had been trying to think of how I was going to make that happen. Then it came to me! I remembered that last year, my cousin participated in a fundraising event called Burpees for Boobies at her local gym in Southern Saskatchewan. It seemed like a fun idea and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month so it would correspond perfectly with that.

I had had a bit of extra time during the day since being forced to cut back my weekly mileage. I decided that I would use my running time to organize Burpees for Boobies, Warman style! The basic idea is that each person gathers pledges and for every $5 raised they promise to do one burpee at the event. I tested the waters by mentioning it to my eight friends who I get to go to Vegas with in November. They were overwhelmingly supportive and more than willing to participate. So, I put the wheels in motion and started planning. My hope was that I could organize a fun event for us to get together and support the Canadian Cancer Society.

The Behind the Scenes Prep

I approached a handful of local Warman businesses and explained what I was trying to accomplish. Their response was positive and very generous. The first person I thought to talk to was Angela at Bodacious Bustlines (boobies are kind of a big deal in her line of work!). Despite the fact that October is an extremely busy time for her (being that it's breast health month), she was more than happy to provide the fundraiser with three great prizes.

Passions Beauty Studio hosted a breast cancer fundraiser this summer and Chelsey is a fit and active person, so when I was in for Myles's haircut, I mentioned my idea. Her response was overwhelmingly supportive! Not only did she donate three prize baskets, but she added a bit of fundraising incentive by offering a free haircut to anyone who raised $400 or more!

My next step was to mention it to Kelli Henderson. Our sons went to preschool together and, as well as teaching local bootcamp classes, she is a personal trainer who is active in the fitness competitions. I remembered seeing a post on Facebook a while ago where Kelli had won a burpee contest, so I thought it may be right up her alley! Sure enough, she happily agreed to participate in and lead us through our burpees.

Anytime Fitness offered to provide an event shirt for each participant. This meant that we needed a Burpees for Boobies logo. My friend Jade did a great job of this for me! It also meant that I had to do up a registration form so that I had a way to keep track of shirt sizes, etc. I did up the registration form & the pledge form and got all the information organized. I set up a group on Facebook so that we could invite people to join us and I could keep everyone updated.

When the need arose to have some promotional printing done, I approached Rebecca at the Diamond Centre Pharmacy. She was more than willing to cover the printing costs and offered to donate prizes as well. The pharmacy has a great selection of giftware and toys. I found some cute wrist sweat bands for the kids and a "Save the Ta-Tas" cup for Kelli in the section of breast cancer merchandise.

Once word spread about the event, I was able to organize additional prize donations. The Legends -Warman Golf Club donated a round of golf, James and Angely at AutoSource1 donated an oil change and inspection, Gloria at De Amore Boutique donated two beautiful purses and happily agreed to participate in the event. Rochelle at Glo Fitness in Martensville donated $60 toward a fitness class at her studio and my registered massage therapist Charlene donated a hot stone massage at her studio Legends Massage Therapy.

I booked the Seniors' Drop in Centre for the afternoon of October 28th and twenty-four people had registered to participate in the fundraiser. While they were hard at work gathering pledges, all that was left to consider were the details.

My husband made a spreadsheet to organize the donations, the Super Valu donated bananas, water & gatorades to fuel our efforts, my friend Shannon offered to take pictures at the event, Kelli & I made an outline for the afternoon and Myles & I found the perfect crowns for the Burpee King and Queen! My friend Mj set up a playlist by organizing "Tune for a Toonie". She was able to raise additional funds for the event by gathering a toonie for each song request. On top of that, her employer, Apple matched each of those donations dollar for dollar through their Employee Charitable Giving program!

So, we were set!

How Many Burpees are Humanly Possible in One Afternoon!?!

Following the steak night in Regina, the total amount raised for my 12 in 2012 event with the Canadian Cancer Society was $8358. Originally, my hope was that if we tried really hard, the Burpees for Boobies event could put the total over my $10,000 goal. Once we had twenty-four participants, I did some quick math and thought maybe, just maybe we could raise as much as $12,000....wouldn't that be cool, I thought....we could raise $12,000 in 2012!

Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would surpass that, but we did! The total raised at the Burpees for Boobies event was $5870!! That puts the total raised to date at $14,228!!!!

That also meant that we had 1174 burpees to do!

As each person checked in and we tallied up their pledges, we gave them raffle tickets that corresponded with the number of burpees they had to do. As they completed their burpees, the participants would enter their tickets in for the prizes they wanted.....when they had used up their tickets, they were done the burpees they had been pledged for.

Once they were done their required burpees, they could choose to keep going and earn more tickets. I also tried to motivate them to do more burpees by offering prizes for Burpee King and Burpee Queen (the male and female participants that did the most burpees in total).

In planning the event, we had decided that anyone who raised $200 or more could be exempt from doing their burpees (afterall, knowing you're going to have to do a burpee for every $5 raised it NOT necessarily great motivation!). Although the majority of the participants met this benchmark, most still chose to participate.

We started off by announcing the winners of the beautiful prize baskets from Passions. Jadah ($525), Mj ($509) and Angela ($425) were the top three fundraisers and were excited to win these treats. There were eight participants who raised $400 or more; and as a result, will receive a free haircut at Passions!

After I introduced Kelli to the group, she led us in a warm up. The Seniors' Drop in Centre was the perfect space for the event. It allowed us enough space to spread out and move. We also had A LOT of little supporters on hand! The kids were happy to be able to hang out together as they cheered for and encouraged their parents.

We tackled the burpees in manageable amounts. Kelli's guidance, the music and the competitions kept things fun! We had a kids' contest, a battle of the sexes and the Burpee Queen & the Burpee King showdowns.

The men and women went up against each other with the hot stone massage up for grabs. The women blew the men out of the water and after 100 burpees, there were still four women standing! So, Kelli made them keep pace and proper form until we finally had the top two women! Gloria won the hot stone massage, a beautiful purse and a lovely crown and MacKenzie won the second purse.

Then it was down to the men. With the round of golf at the Legends up for grabs, we had four men step up to the plate. In the end, Scott was our King and I was happy to crown him (it was his bald head I had had in mind when I purchased his blue tiara!).

On top of all of this, Chelsey from Passions had donated the $250 that had been earned at her breast cancer fundraiser in the summer. After being open for only 3.5 years, the salon had been nominated for the top five Unite Salons in Canada. So, Chelsey had taken her whole team to SanDiego for five days for training, awards and fashion shows; but, she had sent me a message to share with the group:

The ladies at Passions Beauty Studio are passionate for a cure! The Passions Beauty Studio team decided to get together with a local photographer and host a 50's Pin-up Marathon photo shoot to raise money for cancer. After sitting down with their team to discuss where they wanted to donate the money, it was decided that breast cancer research it was. Chelsey Kara owner of Passions Beauty Studio Grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer many years ago, so they felt it would be best appropriate! Chelsey Kara says, "although she only has one boobie, we are so fortunate that grandma Stella is now 78 years old and still with us today. Unfortunately, we know that there are many women out there that have not been so fortunate. We are so happy to be able to give the $250 we were able to raise to Burpees for Boobies and to be a part of such an amazing event. We are so thankful for all of you that have helped in any way to plan, sponsor or get down and do some burpees for such a great cause! We wish we could be there with you all, but we are in San Diego for training. So, we might have to do our share of burpees while on the beach in plus 30 weather! Have a blast and let's all be passionate for a cure!"

Congratulations to the Passions team for winning the award for top Unite Salon in Canada!

Together, we did the 50 additional burpees that corresponded with her donation. So, while we had raised funds for 1174 burpees, I know that we did many more than that!

I am Thankful

I am extremely grateful to the participants of the Burpees for Boobies event. Your support and hard work made this event so much more successful than I could have ever imagined. Thank you Kelli for doing such a great job! I am also thankful to everyone who pledged me & all the other participants. Thank you to the generosity and support from all of the local businesses. Your prizes and donations helped make this fun and you asked for nothing in return.

I have said it before, but going into this year, I never had any expectations for how much I could raise for the Canadian Cancer Society. To think last January, I was thrilled when my brother donated $100. That one donation had made me feel like it would be worthwhile....and now here we are ten months later and we've raised over $14,000!! That feels GREAT!!

Let me tell you though, I was NOT feeling great a couple days after the fundraiser! I had more than a few sore muscles!

That evening, I had a soccer game; and when I got home, I had received an additional $100 donation. So, I did another 20 burpees. Apparently, burpees use every muscle in your body...even some I didn't know I had! It was definitely worth it though.