Allan Kehrer first met Sarah Walls when the two worked together at another personal training facility, much like the one where the two convened last Saturday for the Student Athlete Performance Training Center’s Lift-A-Lot-A-Thon.
Walls, who owns SAPT and works as a strength trainer at nearby George Mason University, donated all proceeds from the event to the Side-Out Foundation, a local nonprofit started by Burke resident and Annandale volleyball coach Rick Dunetz.
When Walls asked Kehrer to participate in the charity event to raise money for breast cancer patients, he gladly obliged. He had seen his share of money-raising races or walks but never an event that focused so heavily on Kehrer’s passion: weight training.
“It’s more fun to participate in something like this,” said Kehrer of the Lift-A-Lot-A-Thon, which featured a mix of monster truck tire flipping, farmer’s walks, pushups, pull-ups and vertical jumps. “This is a higher-caliber thing, and it’ll gather more attention from a different group of people.”
According to Walls, 45 people participated in the daylong event. Around $2,000 was raised for breast cancer patients, with teams of two rotating in and out of the facility every 20 or 30 minutes.
<b>LOCATED</b> at 3831 Pickett Road down Main Street from W.T. Woodson High School, SAPT prides itself on improving athletic and intellectual success in youth, amateur, Division I and professional athletes. Most attendees at the facility are high school students and most live in Fairfax County.
Walls not only thought of the Lift-A-Lot-A-Thon as an opportunity for some extra training but also a chance for her 18-month-old business to have a positive impact on the community.
“Besides, just lifting weights and getting stronger, what we do here is about a little bit more than that,” Walls said. “The goal is to see if we can do this the first time and see if we can build upon it and make it larger for the future.”
Nate Tincher graduated from George Mason University last year and trains at SAPT as a hobby. Like Kehrer, he enjoys powerlifting and was more than happy to help out a good friend and a worthy cause.
“[Walls] told me about it, and I just decided to join up,” Tincher said. “I had a friend whose mom had breast cancer and passed away, so I was really just coming to help out.”