6.21.15 Box Brief

BURPEES FOR BLAINE INSPIRING YOUNG WOMEN THROUGH ATHLETICS

VIDEO: Burpees for Blaine
It’s not only a way to get fit, but also a way to help a great cause and honor a local star athlete
This is a story about turning tragedy into something positive. Blaine Steinberg’s parents tell me she was all about fitness and living healthy. So she would have loved this challenge.”Blaine was just full of life and full of energy,” her mother Jill said.

Blaine was also a tremendous athlete and a leader on and off the field. She played soccer and lacrosse at Penn Charter and was recruited for lacrosse to Dartmouth.

Her father, Sid Steinberg, tells us, “She was tremendously into fitness and she worked at it.”

But her work was cut short. Her parents tell me 15 months ago when Blaine was 20, she died suddenly from an undetected, rare autoimmune illness.

Jill explains, “It’s pretty much a parent’s worst nightmare to get the call that we got that night.”

Thanks to a friend’s idea, Blaine’s spirit lives on. Her family started the foundation Live Like Blaine. And with the help of the CrossFit community, they issued a challenge called “Burpees for Blaine.”

Sid says, “We wanted to turn this into something positive. We honor her as we do that.”

Videos have come pouring in. Burpees for Blaine have been done in 30 states and 10 countries. That includes Blaine’s sister doing burpees in Spain.

Her parents and some other die hards are doing the 100 day burpee challenge.

Day 100 is June 28th, and inside Crossfit Mainline they’ll have an 11-hour burpee-thon.

11 for the number Blaine wore, and her idol U.S. soccer star Julie Foudy also wore.

Donations raised go towards scholarships for local students to attend the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy camp.

The goal is to inspire and empower young women through athletics.

Jill says, “Because we really feel like that was exactly what Blaine was all about.”

As for what Blaine would think of all of this, her dad says, “She just would have absolutely loved it. Both the community aspect and the burpee aspect.”

And it is an open invitation to the burpee-thon on the 28th. You can come and do one burpee, or join them as they do many more.

Any amount of donation is welcome.

To learn more about the burpee-thon visit: https://crossfitbda.com/

For more information on Blaine’s story and the foundation, visit: http://www.livelikeblaine.org/

Or like it on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/livelikeblaine?fref=ts

Check out Ali and Cecily doing burpees for Blaine here: https://www.facebook.com/6abcAliGorman