Weight-loss challenge to aid local charity

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

It’s not often people can lose weight and also give back to their community, but that’s the case with a charitable weight loss challenge being conducted by Peak Community Wellness Center of Van Wert.

Jeff Schwieterman, owner of Peak Community Wellness, which provides fitness programs at the YWCA of Van Wert County, said his organization had some success with a similar charity weight challenge in Delphos last year, which garnered 24 four-person teams who lost a total of more than 700 pounds. He then decided to do the same thing here this year.

“The whole crux of the thing is a charity weight-loss challenge,” Schwieterman said, adding, “It was (also) a good way for us to move people into our program so they could experience what we do and who we are.”

He added that the response in Van Wert was even better than in Delphos, with 40 four-person teams (160 people total) signing up for The Big Give challenge.

Schwieterman said he originally planned to do a 9-10 week event, but then noted that there were several holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, in that time period, and decided to expand the program to 14 weeks, ending the first week in January.

The charity event follows Thin & Healthy’s Total Solutions weight-loss program, an eight-phase program that includes resistance exercises, weightlifting and cardio workouts.

Participants in the program, which began October 7, lost 428 pounds the first week, and Schwieterman said the Van Wert fundraiser should easily surpass the more than 700 pounds lost during the Delphos Big Give event.

In addition to providing $1,000 for a local charity, the individual losing the highest percentage of weight as part of the charity fundraiser will also win $500. Last year’s fundraiser in Delphos resulted in $1,000 going to the Delphos Optimists.

“We were originally going to give $500 to the charity and $500 to an individual winner, but the response was better than we imagined, so we decided to give $1,000 to the winning team’s charity,” Schwieterman noted.

While the event will benefit a local charity, Schwieterman said it also is great for raising community awareness of the Total Solutions weight-loss program. “Most of the people in the program are not Peak Community Wellness members, so it (the charity challenge) allows them to get a flavor for what we’re doing,” he noted.

To help participants keep up with how each team is doing, results are posted to Facebook, and Schwieterman said the page often gets as many as 700 hits from people wanting to see which teams and individuals are losing the most weight.

“People like to follow it,” Schwieterman said of the page.

After the program ends in January, Peak Community Wellness will announce the name of the winning charity and the individual with the greatest percentage of weight loss.

Of course, the big winners of the charity challenge are the 160 people who are losing weight and increasing their fitness as part of the program.