This is more than helping a centre, it's about doing more for a community...
We (Andy Antoine and Wes Derequito) have moved our facility, the A1A Training Centre in Lasalle since January of last year. Since then we have begun training groups of individuals who are passionate about getting in shape as much as we are passionate about helping them reach their goals.
We humbly started with virtually nothing. All our equipment, renovations, and interior work put into our facility has come out of pocket, and at least 85% of the work was done ourselves! That was because we believed in our project and what we could achieve.
Photo: Wes (left) and Andy (right), during their first day of renovations at the A1A Training Centre
Now, our Training Centre is a near 5000 square foot training space, focusing on group classes and semi-private sessions, which we call "Team Training." Our training concept is a much more effective means of fitness training than that of the traditional "bootcamps" and other forms of cross training. Our current members really enjoy our sessions, especially with our versatility. We offer all sorts of training sessions, such as circuit training, athletics, even combat sports such as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and kickboxing to compliment our members' fitness regime. We are also the Headquarters for Senshido International, a world renowned self-defense organization providing some of the most effective self-defense training around!
We have turned our place into a place people can get motivated, yet with our friendly environment, feel at home! We may even go as far as saying it is like a family here at the A1A Training Centre! Better yet, much like a group of strong lions, our family is our Pride! However, we really want to be able to accomodate more people and more importantly, help others in our community! And you can help us grow our ''Pride'.'
Photos: "Team Training" Sessions
We are now looking at the bigger picture, and we need a boost to jumpstart our community outreach program: Fit & Safe For Life. Our goal with our facility is to make it a central hub in our community, a place to help the people within the area live a healthy and safe lifestyle. We want to be able to provide/accomodate for groups of people like less fortunate families, people who have suffered from violent crime, and other needy groups in our area, free sessions/workshops in either health & fitness or selfdefense training. We will then be able to truly embark on a Fit & Safe For Life venture!
What We Need & What You Get
- We are looking at raising $25 000 in order to reach all our goals. If we collect the total funds we are aiming for, 80% of the funds collected will be going into sponsoring the groups and families we wish to accomodate. The other 20% will go into improving the facility, such as new equipment and minor renovations (i.e. improving the changing rooms/showers,) which will also help accomodate more people including our current members!
- In detail, if we get fully funded, we wil be able to sponsor at families or small groups of people a year with nutrition plans and training guides, as well as giving them access to our training facility. We would also be able to sponsor another 2-4 groups a year with self-defense training, providing them with our amazing Senshido Personal Protection program, teaching them to be "Safe For Life." There are many families in the area who would benefit from our training programs, but cannot afford our top quality training. With the help of our neighbours (a non-profit job placement company) we are already sponsoring a group now, but with your help, we would be able to "pay it forward" on a much larger scale in our area! And if you know people who are in need of our kind of services and cannot afford it, please feel free to contact us (info@a1agym.com) so that together we can help them out!
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In return, you can claim awesome perks! Some of the perks also directly contribute to sponsoring individuals! Any Perks marked with an asterix (*) allow you to contribute directly in sponsoring an individual.
For example, if you donate to a perk that involves a membership to our centre, we will match that membership to an individual who needs it! So it's a 2 for 1 deal that we are able to accomodate because of you! You get a membership, and we will Pay it Forward! So,just take a look and see the variety of options as a thank you for believing in our project. We've got memberships to our centre, passes to our training session event, our self-produced workout videos, online training sessions and customizable workout programs made just for you! You help give to us and to others, and we give back to you! These are basically the same type of perks that we will be able to give to people who would not otherwise get them because of their living conditions.
The Impact - A Ripple Effect
We truly believe we can make a difference. A kind gesture, no matter how small can have a profound ripple effect on people's lives. But, collectively, the difference can be much much bigger. This is the reason we are seeking your help. We've done other fundraisers in the past. We've donated our time to train people who couldn't afford quality training for free! We just can't say no to someone who would benefit from our help.
We've helped groups of kids develop into athletes, we've helped local sport teams, and we've even conducted free self-defense seminars for women and community centres. We were even able to invite former UFC veteran, Brian Ebersole to our gym, who volunteered his time to coach our MMA students, with funds going to our self-defense program, Safe For Life.
Photo: Andy and Wes with Former MMA Star, Brian Ebersole (middle).
photo: Brian Ebersole (2nd from the left) with A1A students having fun after a training session. We've also finally introduced our Young Heroes program! A class for kids 13 years and younger, in which we cover activities to help them develop athletic skills along with martial arts training!
Hurdles & Challenges
Since we are a small business, like any other business there will be hurdles to overcome. But since both of us are athletes (Andy, former pro-foootball player, and Wes a Mixed Martial Artist), we see any challenge like a sport or game. In this case an obstacle course! We may not reach our total goal, or maybe we will see other expenses along the way that were not expected. However, we've experienced that before and have overcome them all.
Again, with your help, we make this a much bigger team effort. And with a strong team, we may in fact surpass our goals! If we are able to raise more than our needed goal, we will be able to sponsor more families, and maybe even expand our reach! Sky's the limit!
Other Ways You Can Help
Now, we are providing some sweet perks to come along with certain donation amounts. We also understand that some of you realy want to help us out but may not have enough funds yourselves. But really, this is a collective goal, and every little bit helps! No donation is too small to be considered insignificant. Just think about it, if we are able to reach 1000 people with just a small donation of 25$ each, we already reach our goal!
Even just spreading word about our campaign and help us make some noise about our Outreach project, would be an amazing way to support us! Share our stuff on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.!
We thank you all in advance! Please help our team grow into something big!
Regards,
Andy & Wes