Community News

INAUGURAL 'TOW YOUR WEIGHT' CHALLENGE TO TACKLE HUNGER

KETTLEBELLS NIAGARA MEMBERS DROP GAUNTLET IN CHALLENGE TO SUPPORT PROJECT SHARE

PAUL FORSYTH pforsyth@niagarathisweek.com

Most people prefer to ease quietly into lazy Saturday mornings with a coffee or, if they're ambitious, maybe a brisk walk around the neighbourhood with the family mutt to get their blood flowing.

A group of men and women from Niagara Falls opted for the brisk walk option recently, but with a twist: they were pulling more than 10 tonnes behind them.

Members of Kettlebells Niagara fitness studio in the city divided into teams of four men and four women, getting ready for a competition that they hope will help to tackle the issue of hunger in Niagara Falls.

Studio owner Tina Boccabella is spearheading the idea of 'Tow Your Weight' to

help the Project SHARE charity to replenish the shelves of its emergency food bank.

Studio members will challenge other agencies and companies to compete in a tow truck-pulling competition planned for Saturday, July 30 at the centre parking lot on Fourth Avenue.

Boccabella hoped to have the tow truck-pulling competition in June of 2020 but that idea had to be scrubbed due to COVID-19

restrictions.

But with Project SHARE seeing demand for its food bank increasing to record levels, Boccabella said it's crucial that the community pull together to support those going hungry.

"It's important to give back," she said. "It's the right thing to do if you 're in a position to do so."

When she's dropped food off at the agency's warehouse on Stanley Avenue, Boccabella said it's been hard to see so many people in need. It's also eyeopening to see they're just regular folks, she said.

"They're just normal people," said Boccabella. "There were parents with babies (and) there were elderly people."

At the Gale Centre, the four-person team of men practiced pulling a hulking tow truck with a Ford F-150 pickup truck on the back. The ladies pulled the tow truck without the pickup truck on the bed.

Joe Vierira, owner of Regional Towing who loaned the tow truck, said the tow truck and pickup truck weighed about 26,000 pounds, or close to 13 tonnes.

"It's rolling weight," he said. "But, it's still heavy."

Deb Barter, Mary Katherine O'Rourke, Stephanie Tripp and Boccabella grabbed a rope as thick as a human wrist and began heaving on it, pulling the rig across the parking lot and testing how long it took to travel the allotted distance.

In the competition, women will pull 115 feet and the men will pull 140 feet.

There will be women, men and coed teams in the competition, with four people per team and with the first team crossing the finish line winning heats. If there are enough teams, Boccabella said there will be a playoff round.

Registration is $100 per team; you can sign up here.

The goal is to raise $10,000.

O'Rourke said the first stretch of pulling the weight isn't that difficult but the latter part of the competition is where it starts to get serious.

"You start to tire and then it gets really hard; it really burns," she said. "Your heart is pounding. You feel like you're starting to run a marathon and you're like, I need to not focus on the legs, I need to focus on the goal. All I was thinking was, 'we can do it.' "

Tripp said the competition will reinforce already close bonds among members of the studio.

"We've all become friends and have a great camaraderie, and this is an event that supports the community, it supports the less fortunate," she said.

O'Rourke said Boccabella has a gift for pushing studio members to reach down deep to help others. After two years of uncertainty and hardship for many, the need is real for many in the city, she said.

"Everybody's just a razor's edge away from needing Project SHARE," she said.

"You just don't know."

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2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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