About
For over 20 years, The Brainerd Sunrise Sertoma Club has sponsored the Brainerd Warrior “Lift-a-Thon”. The event is not only a fund raiser for our club, but has the added benefit of encouraging school age kids (boys and girls, grades 8 through 12) to participate in strength training for general health benefits, improve athletic performance, and to become involved with giving back to their community.
Scoring is based on the M.P.P.O. (Most Pounds Per Ounce) concept brought to Brainerd by Steve Nunnink as a way to encourage participation in strength training. By utilizing the M.P.P.O. concept all kids, regardless of their size, become actively engaged in the program. Lifting occurs during a specified two-day period in the Brainerd High School weight room. Each lifter participates in three lifts; parallel squat, bench press and clean. The maximum amount lifted in each event is recorded and added together and the total is divided by the lifters body weight to determine the M.P.P.O.
Since its inception the event has grown considerably with recent numbers varying between 125 and 200 participants. After sign up, each Sertoma member is assigned a team of lifters with approximately 10 kids per team. This number varies depending on the number of kids participating and the number of Sertoma Club members. The kids provide names of people they think would be willing to donate to the “Lift-a-Thon”. The team captains then talk with these people to solicit funds. The kids are not asked to solicit funds from anyone.
The Sertoma Sunrise Club disperses 10% of the profits to the Soup Kitchen with the remainder being distributed directly to needs in the community. We strongly encourage community participation in this event and appreciate any donations that are collected. You may be confident that all funds raised during this event are distributed to needs in our local area.
