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CrossFit Nonprofits Bring Community Together for North Park WOD

August 1, 2021 by
Photo Credit: Ava Kitzi
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Since Eric Roza’s acquisition of CrossFit last spring, a greater emphasis has been placed on community, inclusivity, and paying it forward, in part exemplified by the CrossFit Community Centers, hubs formed by CrossFit in conjunction with non-profit The Phoenix to help connect organizations involved in CrossFit. 

This Sunday, The CrossFit Community Center came together at the CrossFit Games to put on a spectator workout on the North Park turf to bring awareness to non-profits in the community. 

  • Eight organizations were involved in the event, each hosting a station with a different movement for athletes to rotate through

The Non-Profits:

  • The Phoenix: Creating a supportive sobriety community in the CrossFit space.
  • Project Onyx: providing accessible fitness for people of color.
  • Barbells for Boobs: fundraising through workouts and events to help fight breast cancer.
  • Out Foundation: encourage and empower the LGBTQ community and aid in breaking down barriers faced by people in the community.
  • Steve’s Club: provides health education and leadership opportunities for at-risk children.
  • Adaptive Training Academy: offers education to help add accessible training to affiliates.
  • Battle Cancer: British organization who fundraises through CrossFit workouts to help people battling cancer.
  • Redemption Road: providing fitness rehabilitation for inmates and aiding in the transition back to civilian life.

Leorah Hafri is the executive director of Steve’s Club, a national nonprofit that helps provide leadership opportunities and access to fitness and health education for at-risk youth. The organization has a leadership camp, which brings 20 youth athletes from across America together in Colorado to help them build teamwork and leadership skills, setting them up to be role models in their hometowns. 

Hafri says the impact the organization, and specifically the camp, has on the kids involved is immense: multiple participants have gained acceptance into college and even receive scholarships, some from Steve’s Club. Hafri is also grateful for the work CrossFit has done to make them feel more heard. 

  • Hafri: “What CrossFit has done is unlike anything they’ve ever done, just continuing to bring awareness to the nonprofits that have been operating in the space. For them to shine a light on the work we’ve been doing for years is refreshing, and helps boost the work we’re all doing, because we’re all doing really important things.”

Though participants in the North Park workout signed up to get a WOD in where only Games athletes have ever been allowed before, Mackenzie Larrison, a 6-year CrossFit athlete, left with a renewed appreciation for the sport. 

  • Larrison: “It really puts your workouts into perspective, gives you a purpose for doing it. It just makes you feel good!”

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