Hamfit Challenge: when the community unites for children
As is now the tradition, Hamfit recently invited its community to take part in its biggest annual event, the highly anticipated Hamfit x Fondation Charles-Bruneau Challenge. From November 29th to December 5th, more than 1,200 people participated in one of the 58 classes offered free of charge in exchange for a donation to the Foundation, raising over $30,000 for children with cancer. A huge thank you for this sustained dedication and involvement over the years!
“What a wonderful Challenge we have just experienced… And what about the surprise that the wonderful Charlie gave us! In remission from cancer for a few years, she came to participate in the last course of the event with members of the Charles-Bruneau Foundation. She did the training course like the great champion she is! Charlie is living proof that hope comes through research.” – Jonathan Hamel, kinesiologist and owner of the training center.
The short story
The idea of organizing group class challenges for the benefit of sick children was born nearly 10 years ago in the mind of Jonathan Hamel, kinesiologist and owner of the training center located in Brossard.
“I was looking for a way to help young people for whom playing and running is not a given due to illness. For me, the words ‘child’ and ‘cancer’ should not exist in the same sentence. In 2012, I did a first challenge with my family and a few friends. We raised $900!”
That first iteration of the Hamfit Challenge raised a few hundred dollars for children, donated to the Sainte-Justine UHC Foundation at the time. Almost ten years later, more than $32,000 will be donated to the Charles-Bruneau Foundation following the one that has just ended. A dazzling evolution that clearly demonstrates the determination and rigor with which the HAMFIT team invests in a cause that is close to its heart.
Jonathan Hamel | Photo: Rol’s Photography
Reinventing yourself to surpass yourself
If the Hamfit Challenges have a growing success, it is partly because Jonathan’s team has never stopped renewing the form and the concept.
“At the beginning, the Challenge consisted of a few group classes with the profits going to sick children. Then the event expanded to a day, then a weekend, then recently, a full week. People are talking to us about it more and more, we feel that they are now looking forward to the Challenge as much as we are. They care about the cause, they care about the community they train with, and the event marries those two aspects in the most beautiful way possible.”
Reinventing yourself also means being creative when the course of events takes an unexpected turn. In May 2020, when the pandemic forced us all to stay home, Hamfit didn’t give up. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the first Saturday of the month, the team offered its community a series of live group classes on its Facebook page. The result? Over $15,000 was raised in the name of a cancer-free childhood.
2021, a record year
Pumped up since the reopening of the training centers, Jonathan and his team thought big for this latest edition: a week-long event, 58 group classes, and a goal of raising $30,000. While donations are still being collected, the thermometer already shows more than $32,000 raised for the Fondation Charles-Bruneau.
This amount is in addition to the sums already collected this year through a dozen sporting events. The annual amount donated to the Foundation will be announced in January. Last year, the Hamfit community proudly donated $90,000 to the Charles-Bruneau Foundation. A remarkable amount that allows to finance important research projects.
Charlie (top right) and some members of the Charles-Bruneau Foundation after the last class of the Hamfit 2021 Challenge.
