Rhonda's Burpee Challenge - April 28, 2019

Rhonda’s Team was started in April of 2014 as a way to honor Rhonda VanBeek, the mother of Justin VanBeek, owner and head coach of CrossFit Hydro gym. Rhonda was battling stage 4 colon cancer and gym members, friends and family wanted to do something to show their support and love–to show Rhonda that she had a team of people behind her.

The inaugural event, featuring a 20 minute competition of burpees, came together in two short weeks, with 125 participants raising over $2,500 for the Great Plains Colon Cancer Task Force. Rhonda lost her battle on May 19, 2014, just a few weeks after the Rhonda’s Team event. Last year, the event raise over $10,000!

To honor Rhonda’s memory, lift up all those who are fighting colon cancer (and any kind of cancer), and to continue to raise funds for colon cancer awareness efforts, CrossFit Hydro and the Rhonda’s Team Burpee Challenge event partnered with the Great Plains Colon Cancer Task Force to continue this awareness effort.

Burpee:
What’s a burpee, some may ask. Created in the late 1930s by a New York physiologist, Royal H. Burpee, the exercise involves standing up, lowering your body all the way to the floor in a push-up position, performing a push-up and then jumping back to your feet to reach a standing position.