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YourHub.com \\ Palm Beach Gardens \\ Stories \\ News \\ About Town

4,000 Crunchettes Take Lady of America's Challenge

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Contributed by: Alisha Marks on 3/31/2008

On Saturday, March 29 women in Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter, along with more than four thousand women nationwide," felt the burn" as they crunched their abs for one hour straight during the 2008 Ab Crunch Challenge benefiting St. Jude Children's Hospital. More than 200 local Lady of America, Ladies Workout Express and Workout Express gyms hosted the fitness challenge, with a goal to raise $1 million for St. Jude and make history by creating a new Guinness Record for the most abdominal crunches done in one hour by a group. The results are still be tabulated and will be submitted to the Guinness Book of World Records for consideration.

Earlier this year, Lady of America, the world's largest chain of full-service women's fitness centers, began promoting the life-saving work of St. Jude and challenged women to choose a weight loss program that benefited their waistline and helped others in need. They invited both members and non-members to sign-up for free ab training classes in local Lady of America gyms and asked the "crunchers" to solicit donations for St. Jude. A number of women in Palm Beach enrolled and trained for more than 10 weeks to build up the strength and endurance to perform hundreds of crunches on Challenge day.

Founded by Hamilton Township, New Jersey Ladies Workout Express club owner Tony Parziale - a two-time Guinness Book of World Records holder for performing more than 4,000 crunches within a one hour time limit - the Ab Crunch Challenge began as a small event in honor of a gym member who lost a child to cancer. Three years later, Parziale now nicknamed "Captain Crunch," turned his ab crunching challenge into a national philanthropic competition where thousands of women and 200 Lady of America franchised gyms participated.

"I was extremely proud to lead this national philanthropic fitness campaign," said Parziale. "The women who participated in this challenge worked hard to build up their core strength and fundraise for St. Jude and should be applauded for the collective number of crunches they performed, and money donated to St. Jude through the challenge."

"St. Jude is an incredible research center where doctors and researchers are committed to saving the lives of children with cancer and other deadly diseases," says Beth Lucas of Malibu, Calif. whose son is a St. Jude patient. "The Ab Crunch Challenge participants are now part of a vital team supporting the hospital's life-saving work and ensuring that no child is ever turned away because of a family's inability to pay."

For information about local Lady of America locations participating in the Ab Crunch Challenge, or to make a donation, visit www.abcrunchchallenge.org.

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