While many teenagers spend their time sitting in front of video games or staring at their iPhone for hours on end, that is not the case for Elle and Simone. The girls, both 13, organized a fundraising event for Compete for a Cure as part of their 8th grade service project.
Friends since kindergarten, the girls wanted to raise money for Compete for a Cure because Elle lost her grandmother and aunt to breast cancer. “We wanted to support breast cancer survivors by donating to Compete for a Cure for our eighth grade service project,” said Elle.
Simone’s father has been doing CrossFit at CrossFit Beach Box in Redondo Beach, California, for 11 years and both girls recently started CrossFit themselves. So when they were trying to come up with an idea to raise money, they decided on running an event at their gym.
On July 22, Elle and Simone hosted a group workout at CrossFit Beach Box with all donations going to Compete for a Cure. The girls pledged to row 100 meters for every $10 donated during the event. And once the donations were tallied it exceeded their expectations as nearly $2,000 was raised…and Elle and Simone had to row close to 20,000 meters!
The fundraising page for the event is still live on competeforacure.org and the total amount donated now exceeds over $2,300!
After finishing their rowing, the girls spoke about the community inside their gym, “The community was so supportive. As we were doing the workout we were cheered on and everyone was eager to help out with our rowing. It really felt like a family made up of amazing people.”
