24-hour Veterans Day fundraiser this weekend

There are events taking place not just today, Veterans Day, but events going on this weekend as well. And one of those is one that I think is rather unique, if you ask me. It's a rowing event. But hang on, don't get too far ahead of me. CrossKicks Fitness in Batavia is doing a 24-hour fundraiser this Friday into Saturday. And to join us to talk more about that, from CrossKicks Fitness, say hello to Gary Erweiler. Gary, did I get that last name correct? You got it right. Thank you, J.D. Perfect. Great to have you here on Chicago Live Primetime, Gary. So, again, this is an event going on this weekend to help honor our veterans. 24-hour rowing fundraiser, but it's not people in a boat in a body of water. It's going to be gym rowing, correct? That's right. We're trying to blend in what we do here and how passionate we are with fitness and blend it into Veterans Day and just being thankful of all those veterans who have gave so much to us. So this is a unique way, like you said earlier, it's a unique way. We're pretty excited. We got a lot of people involved and we're looking forward to the event. So let's talk about this a little bit more. So is this the first time doing this? What's the history here? What was the inspiration for doing an event like this? You know, this is our first time here. We've been open for business now for three years, and we just thought of a unique way in which we could go out and spread the message and make it more aware of Veterans Day and how appreciative we are. We do have some members in our gym that are veterans as well, and this is a way to appreciate them and to get a lot of excitement and enthusiasm going. I mean, we're going to row. For 24 hours. That's the crazy thing. I mean, let's break this down. I know I said it once or twice here. 24-hour rowing fundraiser. That means for 24 hours, people are rowing. Now, break that down in more detail. How's this going to work? It's not one person rowing for 24 hours. There's going to be shifts going on here, correct? There will be shifts. We are starting on Friday, November 13th, 7 a.m., and we have a plethora of people, a variety of people. It doesn't matter if they're in shape. It doesn't matter anything as long as they go in and just row. We want to keep that rower moving throughout the whole 24 hours, and it'll conclude on Saturday, the 14th, at 7 a.m. Now, if we have even more people that want to row and show enthusiasm to join us, then you know what? We'll extend it. But right now, it is set for 24 hours, a maximum of about 48 people. So we're really excited for this opportunity. This sounds like a lot of fun. So if somebody wants to get involved, how many spots do you have open? How do folks get signed up? What do they have to do? Well, believe it or not, we do have about seven spots open still. So if anyone's out there, and again, you don't have to be a member of CrossKicks. You could be someone in the community. We want to reach out to those in the community and bring that enthusiasm here as well. And all of our proceeds are going to be going directly to the VFW Batavia post 1197. And yeah, Yeah, I mean, if you wish to donate and you're not gonna be, here or anything like that, you can donate by going to our website, crosskicksfitness.com slash Batavia, and there'll be a spot on there which you can make a contribution and a donation towards the efforts. Now, help me understand, too, when it comes to this fundraising event, how are we raising funds? There's a sponsorship involved, from what I understand. Is that correct? Yes, each rower, we set a goal that each rower, every time they get on and they sign up for a 30-minute slot, we really want them to reach a $100 goal for that 30 minutes. And we do have some people that are going to row directly for an hour, and so that we hope to double. And so we're looking for a $200 donation. We really want them to get out in the community. share their experience or with family members, friends, businesses, organizations, whoever, and just say, hey, I'm doing something that's really unique, different, and we're going to row for 24 hours. And so hopefully the buzz is going to get out there and who knows, maybe this will become an annual event. I like the sound of that. Now you said anybody can show up to this. You don't have to be a gym nut or anything else like that, but any age requirements, are you suggesting somebody has to be a certain age? Well, 16 and above we would love, and if anybody comes in younger than that, we would ask that a parent be present with them, but yeah, as of right now, it seems to be all adults, so we're pretty excited, and you know what, our gym and the members that are involved have been really excited about it, so I can't be any more pleased in how this has taken off, and we'll see, we'll build on it this year, and we'll see what happens next year. And that is my question for you is while I have you here on the line, tell me a little bit more about your gym. Tell me more about what you guys are doing there and the process of things to kind of build up awareness of what you're doing inside of those four walls. Well, obviously, each and every day, it's the talk of the town. Each trainer's on the floor, and we're really hitting our members. And, you know, some of them are hesitant with it. And, you know, I don't know if I can do that, but our job as trainers is what? It's to bring them on board and tell them they can do it and prove to them that they can do it. Again, we're not here to say we're going to get 24 miles or 30 miles on our rower, but we're just here saying that rower is going to continue to move. It's not going to stop. And so that's really the premise behind it. Our veterans haven't stopped. You know, they continue to live their lives after serving our country. And we just want to show that appreciation and try to match as best we can their efforts here in what we're doing. Look at that. I love that mindset. Try to keep up the pace that those veterans have set. And that's kind of the next idea. Why rowing? There's many other options in the gym. You could have done jump rope. You could have done weightlifting. Who said, you know what, let's give rowing a shot. You know what, J.D., I think next year I'm going to call you ahead of time and we'll come up with something else. And you know what, maybe we'll have you come out and join us, too. Yeah, you're going to have to scoop me up off the floor very quickly. I'm not going to last too long, I'll tell you that. I think it's a great idea. I appreciate that. Yeah, no, we're just, again, we're really excited. Thank you for having us on the show. And yeah, hopefully, maybe you can come out. Maybe you can come out and just see what we're doing. This sounds like a great idea and, again, a great event. I know the weather's going to be a little bit on the cooler side, but folks will be inside this Friday into Saturday. So one more time, Gary, let's kind of recap this back from the beginning. 24-hour rowing event starts Friday morning at 7 a.m. and then? Finishes on Saturday at 7 a.m. And we go in shifts here, correct? Yes, we're doing 30-minute shifts or 60-minute shifts. And if anybody's curious to sign up, you've still got about a half dozen or so slots open. So if they want to sign up, what's the best place to go and see? Visit our website, crosskicksfitness.com slash Batavia, and you can sign up there. And again, if we have more rowers, we're going to create more time. And if we even have more rowers at a certain time, we'll get two rowers out. We've got three rowers out. We can do it all. We're not going to turn anyone away. Sounds like a good plan to me, Gary. I want to see some pictures and video. Maybe we'll do a follow-up on this on Monday. I want to see how things all turn out. Gary Erweiler from the CrossKicks Fitness in Batavia, thank you so much for putting on this event. Thank you for being on the program tonight, and I hope you have a wonderful turnout Friday into Saturday. I appreciate it. Thank you to our veterans. And, yes, a big thank you to all of our veterans. Gary, again, thank you for joining us here tonight.