Nova Scotia CrossFit Gym Mourns Losing “Lifeblood” of the Community, Coach Terri Jackson
When Terri Jackson’s friend Keely Wadden asked her to help start her affiliate in 2015, Jackson didn’t hesitate.
And one year later, when flooding due to a major storm caused CrossFit D10 in Place Bay, Nova Scotia to lose everything, Jackson didn’t hesitate to open her garage up as a temporary space for members to train until Wadden found a new space and re-opened in May 2017.
That’s just the kind of person she was, said Keely Wadden, the owner of CrossFit D10.
Needless to say, Wadden and the entire D10 community is devastated, as 51-year-old Jackson, who Wadden described as “the lifeblood of our community,” died quite suddenly of cancer earlier this month.
“Terri put everything she had into CrossFit D10. It really was her life. She was so passionate about helping people live happier, healthier lives through CrossFit,” Keely said of Jackson, who was also the head coach at the gym.
“Without her, we would not have made it through the flood, rebuild, COVID lockdown etc…Terri embodied everything our community represents and strives to be. Terri believed in everyone who walked through our doors and got so much joy from being able to show people their true potential.”
Remembering Jackson: To pay their respects, the CrossFit D10 community designed a workout they called Legend in honor of their beloved coach.
“It was some of her favorite movements,” Wadden said of the workout, where they used where the letters in the word legend fall in the alphabet to determine the rep scheme.
Legend
6 Rounds for Time:
- 12 thrusters
- 5 clean and jerks
- 7 lateral burpees
- 5 snatches
- 14 box jumps
- 4 deadlifts
- 47 double-unders (as 47 is the sum of the letters that spell legend)
Through their grief, more than 100 people showed up on December 17, to watch 50-plus members of the community tackle the workout and remember Jackson. Further, other gyms across Canada, and as far away as New York and Florida also participated in her honor, Wadden said.
“It was a beautiful and brutal day. A group of us did the workout before the event kicked off and it was very emotional. Lots of hugs, sweat and tears,” she said.
Wadden admitted she wasn’t sure how she would continue to even go to the gym, let alone run it, without her friend, but she realizes now she can.
She has to.
“It is where we are closest to her. She is everywhere you look and somehow there is this renewed sense of purpose and we know that together keeping this place alive is the best way to honor her,” Wadden said.
“This is where we will come together and heal and through that process create something beautiful in her memory. It’s the only way forward.”
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