9,300 CrossFitters and 31 Kids by Scott Zagarino On August 6th 31 children lost their fathers in the same day. As it is, most of us don’t stop long enough to breathe, much less ruminate for just a second what it...
On August 6th 31 children lost their fathers in the same day. As it is, most of us don’t stop long enough to breathe, much less ruminate for just a second what it would be like at 10-years old to watch as two uniformed men inform your mother that a grateful nation is telling her that her husband will never return, or that before she could even grasp the enormity of that grief, she had to tell her children. Since you may have read this far, ponder for a second the breaking hearts and the fear that goes from stunned to crumpled.
I have to apologize to you all, here and now, for doing something I had no right to do. We committed to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation that we would fund 60 college scholarships this year from a portion of the proceeds of Fight Gone Bad. On Aug 7th I called Steve and gave him my word we would fund 31 more scholarships. I had no right to commit to that on your behalf, but I gave my word and if it costs us everything, those kids are going to school.
More than the money, more than the scholarships, it’s our friendship, our support and our thanks that these families need now. So, on Thursday, September 1, we’re going to publish an open letter listing team by team, box by box, the 9,300 (or thousands more by then) CrossFitters who are teeing it up on September 17 first on the FGB6 Blog. We’ll include a list of every registered team and what we’ve raised so far with an introduction that lets every one of the 31 children know how much we appreciate their sacrifice. We want them to know how much we want to help, and how much they can count on us, not just this September, but ever September until they graduate.
Come Thursday, please comment on Facebook and the blog, let them know who you are and why they matter to you. You may never again have the opportunity to do so much good in 17 minutes. There are more than 1,000,000,000 CrossFitters out there and we can change at least this small part of the world together on the 17th.
Marble starts out as a chunk of stone rooted in the ground that resists removal from its station mightily. It takes brute force to uproot it from its place. Then as an ugly, stubborn chunk it has to be moved by heavy equipment to a place to be cut, shaped and polished until what was once an ugly piece of the earth becomes a beautiful, hard surface brought into service as a floor or a kitchen counter.
There is one more purpose it serves that rises far above the mundane household uses. What was once of the earth becomes of the spirit when it marks a life no longer lived. Most times it marks the cradle to grave passing of a person of the everyday accomplishment of a father, son, brother, sister or friend.
But occasionally there is a rock dug from the earth meant to mark an extraordinary and heroic life. Not long ago I stood before just that special piece of marble on a small piece of ground off the beaten path at the Special Operations Warrior memorial wall in Florida. As I walked from the parking lot and caught my first glance of the yards of cool black marble inscribed to honor and memorialize men and women who had given the most precious thing given to all of us, their lives, I began to feel. It was a feeling of appreciation that any words I write here could not begin to describe.
The black, veined rock had come to a confluence of rest with the souls of people who walk among us but not with us. There was one name I searched for because I knew at least a part of the story that caused the marble slab to bear his name. After walking around the memorial feeling more and more a mixture of sadness, appreciation and a kind of awe took over that I may have felt sometime before, but couldn’t remember when.
Then as if I had always been meant to stand in that place, I found myself standing in front of a small, square piece of black marble with the carefully carved inscription, “Lt Michael P Murphy.” I disappeared into a sobbing, shattered shadow of the person I had been when I’d woken in my hotel that morning. What was left of Lt Murphy was not a piece of rock, it was a reminder of the heights each of us are capable of rising to from one singular motivation. A motivation I, and most of us, rarely recognize, acknowledge or ever have the chance to act on. A motivation that is the very quality we each squander daily as we race through our lives of never enough. A motivation that makes everything else in the world pale and disappear into the background. The motivation wrought by our total and complete love for our brothers and sisters.
For Michael Murphy, that meant making the choice to stand up, as bullets flew through and by him, pick up a satellite phone and make a phone call that I am sure he knew would be the last act of this life. That phone call was a plea for anyone on the other end to please come to the rescue of his brothers who were being torn apart by enemy fire that there was no escape from. And then Lt Michael Murphy was gone.
But I met Michael Murphy. I met him on a wall sitting in a patch of grass in a small field in Florida. I met him, because that piece of marble that had been so stubborn and rugged would forever stand in that place to remind me, and anyone who stands before it, we all have a chance to rise. We all have a chance to give and serve something precious to us to someone and something bigger than ourselves.
Before I left that place, I rubbed my hand across that cold, dark slab and made a vow to Lt Murphy. Writing this now it may sound insignificant given what he’d given me, but I promised him that as long as there was a Fight Gone Bad I would do everything I could to make sure he was not forgotten, and that as many people as I could reach would not forget him either. At least for seventeen minutes once a year.
On September 17th, every one of us has a chance to rise above ourselves, throw some money in the hat for the people we can help, and say thank you to Lt. Michael Murphy for reminding us who we can be. He gave us the chance to be heroic in our own way.
Let us not, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, “….be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
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This is Sacrifice…lets support the families who never get to reunite with their loved ones
For more information on how to get involved click here
On September 17th, 2011, CrossFitters from around the world will come together to endure 17 minutes of one of our most grueling workouts in honor of those men and women who have given a lifetime of service and sacrifice……Open Post for Details
On September 17th, 2011, CrossFitters from around the world will come together to endure 17 minutes of one of our most grueling workouts in honor of those men and women who have given a lifetime of service and sacrifice.
For 17 minutes we will grind, sweat, and Fight! At every moment we want to slow down, with every thought that tells us to put down the barbell, we will REMEMBER those who sacrificed their lives, limbs, or loved ones in service to our nation. Please turn to your community of family and friends, asking them to join us by participating, donating, and or fundraising in Fight Gone Bad 6.
In “Fight Gone Bad” the athlete completes as many repetitions as possible in one minute for each of the 5 movements. After the 5 minutes of work, the athlete gets a 1 minute rest and then completes two more rounds of the Fight, for a total of 3 rounds. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of ‘rotate,’ the athletes must move to the next station immediately.
Invite a family or friend to participate. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us for FGB6, however we do ask that all participants make some sort of donation, no matter how large or small.
If you would like to fundraise for this event, click on the join our team tab (above and to the left) and register for the event. After that you can set your fundraising goal and send friends and family directly to your page to donate on your behalf. Individuals who raise $150 or more will receive an Official FGB 6 Event T-shirt after the event.
**If you are unable to participate on September 17th due to other commitments you can still participate in fundraising and complete Fight Gone Bad on behalf of your donors throughout the week at BOLT.
For those not interested in fundraising, but would like to donate you have two options for making donations. The first is to donate online at www.fgb6.org. Simply click on the donate tab and then search by team for CrossFit BOLT, next choose one of our team members and donate. We will be collecting donations at the gym as well, look for a donation jar soon. Additionally, you can find registration forms and waivers available for you at the gym to sign up.
