Battle Buddy 57
Hey everyone, Coach Chad here! If you’ve been to the gym recently, you’ve probably heard you coach telling you that Battle Buddy 57 is coming up again – Dec 3rd, 2022 to be exact. I know we cover announcement quickly, so I wanted to share a little bit more info about what BB57 is and why we do it.
What is Battle Buddy 57
Battle Buddy 57 started in 2009. Our first child, Olivia, was born with a rare chromosomal disorder and spent 57 days in the neonatal ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital. During that stay, we experienced a lot of emotion; we had some very high highs and some very low lows. The first week after Olivia was born was extremely difficult, we didn’t even know if Olivia would survive each day (this still makes me emotional – evidence: I’m crying as I type this). That week was probably the hardest week of my life. After that week, we started to get answers.
We knew Olivia would live, to start. We found out her diagnosis, a 13q deletion. And, we started to be parents. I changed my first diaper. I read books to Olivia. We started to find our normal.
As “normal” set in, a profound sense of gratitude started to come over me, a little bit more every day. I was extremely grateful for Olivia to be born in Houston and for her to have access to such amazing medical care. I felt lucky because Olivia was going to live and she was going to come home.
It was during that time that I knew we needed to do something to Texas Children’s. So I called the hospital and committed to raising $25,000 over five years to fund an endowment in Olivia’s name. After Olivia came home, I found Crossfit and the rest is history. My first Crossfit gym, Bayou City Crossfit, offered to host an event to raise money for our family; we said yes, but directed all of those funds to Texas Children’s Hospital.
So here we are, 13 years later. Olivia is home, she is alive and healthy(ish). I tell people this all the time, this is why we raise money for Texas Children’s – so that families can bring their newborns home. Every child deserves a chance at life, it’s pretty hard to argue that. That’s why we do it, so as many newborns as possible can come home and live whatever life they end up living.
How Can You Help?
Good question! I’ll break this down into two pieces, before the event and at the event,
Before the Event
- Find a friend and register for the event! The more teams we get, the more fun we have and the more we raise for TCH.
- Tell your friends about the event! ANYONE can do this event. Over the years, I’ve seen 8 year olds and 88 years olds (both true) do the event. It’s a charity workout, we can scale everything! Don’t worry about this. It’s not a competition, it’s just a fun workout on Saturday. Any, since you do it with someone, you get to rest during the workout!
- Help with raffle prizes! One of the things I love about the event is our raffle. We take ANY and ALL donations, so, if you have a hook up see if we can get a donation – coffee shops, restaurants, workout gear, ANYTHING! We take what we get and we love to see more people win something in the raffle.
- Make a donation! Some people don’t want to workout or can’t make it. We’ll miss having you at the event, but some folks ask if they can still make a donation. The answer is YES, if you go to the registration pages, there is a “donate” option when you click on tickets.
At the Event
- Work out! (obvi!) And know you’re doing it for a good cause.
- Have fun! (also, obvi!)
- Participate in the raffle! Everyone like winning things and it’s for a good cause.
- Volunteer! Talk to me about how you can help. We need people to help check folks in, help get the workout set up and running, and work at the raffle table.
In Summary
Yellow Rose is the best. I feel more at home in the gym than I feel at my own house, why is that? You! I love our community. Thank you for letting me be part of it and for welcoming Battle Buddy 57 into the gym!
-Coach Chad
Blog from TCH covering last year’s event
Another Blog post I wrote for TCH in 2014
