Kidney Walk Fundraiser Videos

Last year, my beloved aunt Kathy was diagnosed as being in stage 4 renal failure, and is now on dialysis. Her daughter, cousin Beth, got together a team to walk in the Kidney Foundation walk to support Kathy and to raise awareness of kidney disease. I joined the team, and wanted to raise as much money as possible. With that in mind, and inspired by trainer who did a similar fundraiser, I promised people that I would do some kind of gym related torture for every dollar raised, and would post the results here.

The fund raiser was this weekend. I raised about $700, and our team totaled over $1900. I'm very proud of us, and can't thank my donors enough. And extra special thanks to Heather, my partner in crime and videographer, and David, my partner in life and sound man, these videos couldn't have happened with out them!

Without further ado, here are the results. I didn't embed the videos to make this page load faster; just click the links to view the videos.

Joy decided I should do a warm up routine to the blue danube waltz. In a bizarre coincidence, a different pair of donors, Paul and Dawnell, requested that I wear a tutu for these tortures. Which worked out either quite nicely, or completely horrifically, I will let you decide.

Next, Wayne wanted 6 minutes of stretching. It just so happens that The Smiths, his favorite band ever, has a 6 minute song. Music in the background is  The Smith's "How Soon is Now?"

Joy also requested that I do calisthenics to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now".

Allison requested clean and press with the 8Kg kettlebell (75 of these). Song in background is "Equalize" by Gomez.

Vikki requested tricep bench dips (90). Sharon requested catch and release kettle bell swings (with 12Kg kettlebell) (100).  Songs in backgound are Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa" by Shakira.  At this point, we realized that the camera wasn't big enough to hold all the video we shot and we had to start editing for time. But I really did do all of the required tasks. If I had been alone, I would have cheated, but David and Heather were there to keep me honest.

Lisa requested high press (with 12Kg kettlebell) (30). Songs in backgound are "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" by the Weavers and "But It's Alright" by J.J. Jackson.

Margi requested jackknifes with a ball, but my back wasn't quite up for that and I had to switch to crunches.

Heather requested 2 miles in 37 minutes, which we wound up doing 2 miles in 35 minutes! Woo-hoo. Also shown in this video, Mom and Dad did't specify anything, so I finished with a 100 second wall sit.

And last but not least, Shirley requested that I never ever take another picture of myself in a public rest room. (Part II)

Thanks again to my donors, I joke around a lot, but your support really means the world to me, and I really appreciate you all making me be able to do this for aunt Kathy!