This weekend, Lacombe’s KidsSport will be hosting Strength-A-Thon fundraiser. KidSport is a newer non-profit to the County of Lacombe that helps low-income families put their children through organized sports offering them the opportunities that come with community and confidence in sport. 

The Strength-A-Thon involves three different challenges that participants can choose from. The more money each participant ends up fundraising will mean an even greater challenge for them physically. 

“There's a push up challenge and by registering for that event then participants are agreeing to do one push-up for every dollar that they raise. It's a challenge for them in terms of raising money and raising awareness, but then also challenging their fitness and promoting healthy lifestyles as well. We also have a kettlebell swing challenge where every dollar that you raised and you agree to, doing five kettlebell swings.  There is a jump rope challenge as well where every dollar that you raise you agree to doing 10 jumps on that skipping rope,” explained Vice Chair of Lacombe’s KidSport, Crystal Watson.

People of all ages are welcome to participate; however, they should be mindful of their own fitness levels before participating. 

“If you're going to be doing push-ups, then just making sure you don't have any upper body injuries. If you do, then maybe just choose a challenge that would be more appropriate for you. But yes, any age everyone in the community is welcome,” she noted. 

The non-profit is hoping to fundraise $10,000 in order to form a foundation to begin helping out young and aspiring athletes. 

“We have this big push that’s also why we came up with the push-up challenge to help in the push for our $10,000 goal for the Fall. We have passed the halfway mark now, so we're getting close to $6,000 that has been raised,” she noted. 

They are hoping to fundraise $10,000 by the Fall in time for hockey, ringette, and other ice sports to begin. 

“The interesting thing about KidSport at Lacombe County is that every dollar raised in the community stays in the community which means that the funds raised are going to help kids who are in Lacombe, Blackfalds, Bentley, Eckville, Clive, and Alix get into sport,” said Watson. 

Now that the pandemic restrictions have been lifted the organization looks forward to children once again being involved in sports in their local communities. Through the Strength-A-Thon, they hope to see more of the community come together and challenge themselves physically.  

“The Strength-A-Thon event is really just meant to help connect and support our community. We're also encouraging healthy lifestyles and it's all for a great cause with raising money for kids in the Lacombe County,” she added. 

The Strength-A-Thon will be hosted at TNT Metabolic Igniters on Saturday, June 24 starting at 1:30 PM. You can register to participate in the event here.