Meet Clark Wiebe, a Kinesiology major, finishing his program at the end of this semester. If you have ever been to the McGill gym, you’ve probably seen him there; if you ever took a circuit class, he was most likely your instructor; and if you’ve ever wondered how to give back to your community by working out, as the founder and co-president of Fit For a Cause, Clark is your go-to person.
As the name suggests, Fit For a Cause is a student-run organization that offers by-donation fitness classes. Their yoga, spin, zumba, and circuit classes are all taught by student instructors.
As we start chatting, he brings up that this is actually his fifth year at McGill. While he was aspiring to major in physiology and math, something just didn’t feel right. He sought out to find something more, in his words, “in line with his passions” and came across kinesiology. However, that was not what initially got him to start Fit For a Cause.
“A lot things in my life revolved around fitness, and I figured out [that] that’s what I’m passionate about,” he remarked.
In February 2014, he came up with the idea after talking to his mom. As he told her how much he enjoyed teaching classes at the gym, she suggested teaching classes and raising money to donate to charity.
The “prototype” for Fit For a Cause was Lower Field Fitness.
“People liked the idea, [but] it just wasn’t structured in a way that would bring in a lot of people,” he recalled.
That summer he went back home and decided to re-vamp the whole concept.
“I changed the title, made a logo, and started advertising a lot more,” he explained.
With this new strategy he managed to bring in many more people and raise much more money for the charity they work with, Sun Youth Organization, which helps disadvantaged youth in the community and provides them with many things such as wholesome food and hygiene products. Though there was not a lack of charities to choose from, it was clear that he had his mind set on working with Sun Youth even before launching Fit For a Cause.
“Back in Windsor, Ontario [his hometown], I was part of the basketball team of a different charity with a similar goal to Sun Youth,” he said. “Being in the team taught me a lot of things about working hard, perseverance and teamwork.”
He started looking at charities in Montreal and then contacted Sun Youth.
Since Clark is graduating this year, Fit For a Cause will eventually be left to current volunteers to manage and build. He firmly believes that they’re going to do their best to keep it running here at McGill, but he ultimately aspires to spread the idea across all universities in Canada.
“[Fit For a Cause] is a very simple idea, where people passionate about sports get together, work out and donate to charity,” he stated. “It can be easily done anywhere, and that’s why my goal is to get other universities to also have their own [similar] clubs.”
Before Clark starts his master’s in the Ivey School of Business next year, turning Fit For a Cause into a “brand” that will provide students an affordable way to attend fitness classes while simultaneously helping the community is a given.
If you’d like to get involved in Fit For a Cause, you can become a member by attending their classes or become a volunteer by helping to organize the classes. If you’re interested in the latter, you can either message them on Facebook or visit their website.
If you asked me what I thought of Clark, I would definitely tell you that he has a direction in life, given the reasons for all of his tireless efforts.
“What I want to accomplish are two things: first, I want to improve the health and lives of McGill students, but also the health and lives of others that don’t necessarily have access to the classes and facilities that we have.” he said. “We strive to bring health to our community and we do that at Fit For a Cause on a continuous basis. What people are doing by coming to our classes is having an impact on the community themselves by making a very small donation. We understand that the idea of giving back to others can be very overwhelming since students tend to have little time on their hands. Small gestures tend to get lost in our busy lives and what we try to do is give students an opportunity to give back, almost without even thinking about it.”
Images provided by the interviewee