Last March, one of my dearest friends, Blaine Steinberg, passed away suddenly, just two weeks before her 21st birthday. In her life cut short, Blaine strived as a fierce athlete, dedicated student and natural leader. But most of all she inspired her family, friends, teammates and coaches with her contagious positive energy and outlook on life. Even just being greeted by Blaine’s huge, signature smile would turn my day around.
In order to share her spirit with young female athletes and leaders, Blaine’s family created the Live Like Blaine Foundation. In support of the Foundation’s first initiative, hundreds of people Blaine inspired have come together to honor her by participating in a fitness challenge called Burpees for Blaine. The challenge combines “fun and friendly competition,” two of Blaine’s favorite things (although I know she especially enjoyed the competition part!).
The challenge kicked off on March 22nd, on what would have been Blaine’s 22nd birthday, and includes various options, both for individuals and for teams. The proceeds raised through the burpee challenge will support various organizations that are consistent with the Foundation’s mission to “empower and inspire young women to become leaders through fitness and athletics.” Two such organizations are the Julie Foudy Leadreship Foundation (www.foudyleadershipfoundation.org) and the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative (www.baswi.org).
I have elected to challenge myself with the “super challenge”, which consists of completing one burpee on day one and then adding a burpee each day, for 100 days, yielding a total of 5,050 burpees. In order to raise awareness and share experiences, people all over the country (and world) are filming and posting videos on the Live Like Blaine Facebook page. Last week I visited the Yale Women’s Lacrosse team at Reese Stadium, where we completed 11 burpees together, in honor of Blaine and her lucky number. We also challenged the Men’s team and are anxiously awaiting their video!
If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to join the Burpees for Blaine initiative to honor the life of a true competitor and incredible person. Please visit the Live Like Blaine website (http://www.livelikeblaine.org/) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/livelikeblaine?fref=ts) to learn more.