By Jacques St. Jean
@jacsaintj
On Tuesday, March 29 at noon, the Team Iron Sports club partnered with the Springfield College Dance Marathon to help raise money for childhood cancer. A handful of Team Iron Sport’s strongest took to the squat racks in the wellness center and displayed some amazing feats of strength.
On the day prior to the event, members of the club advertised the event on Instagram with donation “bingo cards” on their stories, and also contacted their friends and families asking for donations. The event welcomed everyone and anyone to come and watch, or even participate in the lifting, regardless of their membership with Team Iron Sports. Team Iron Sports’ President Cassidy Thompson was one of a few to “squat for a cure” over a week ago.
“Our original idea was to squat the amount of money we earned,” Thompson explained, “then we realized that we could do better than that so we just tried to raise as much money as we could and then kind of have a celebration at the end where we just squatted and had fun after raising a bunch of money.”
Thompson and the rest of Team Iron Sports raised a little over $300 in only 24 hours, and now has an SC Dance Marathon team. In the fallout of this successful event, Thompson hopes to continue this tradition yearly, and get Team Iron Sports more involved in the Springfield College community.
“We hope to grow ourselves,” Thompson said, “and also grow more in the community and help give back to other places on campus.”
The lift-off was also a great showcase of strength that Team Iron Sports has. Thompson herself tied her personal best squat of 225 pounds, and Vice President Aiden Howell completed an overhead squat of 250 pounds, which was the original dollar amount goal of the club’s fundraiser.
Squatting that day alongside e-board members Thompson and Howell was one of the club’s coaches, sophomore Carlo Frunzio.
“Obviously it’s a great cause,” Frunzio stated. “It meant a lot that a lot of people were willing to come out and support it, and put a lot of effort into it… it was quite exciting.”
Frunzio also completed an amazing feat of strength as he did a 15-second pause squat at 405 pounds.
“It was pretty close to (a personal record),” Frunzio added, “I don’t know if it was a PR, but it was pretty close to one. There were definitely some PRs going on (that day).”
Similar to Thompson, Frunzio is also excited for the future for Team Iron Sports. He believes that the lift-off with the Springfield College Dance Marathon helped get their club out there in the eyes of the community, and will bring more events similar to this one in the future.
“We’re hoping to hold a meet in the coming semester,” Frunzio expressed, “like a mock meet, powerlifting, weightlifting, I think that’s the long term goal.”
The promising strength in numbers and bodies of Team Iron Sports will hopefully lead to future events on campus for them. If you or someone you know is interested in joining Team Iron Sports, contact President Cassidy Thompson at cthompson19@springfieldcollege.edu.
Photo Courtesy of Myah Baird