Burpees For Turkeys In Bangor

A Bangor fitness center is challenging volunteers to raise money for Thanksgiving turkeys by doing burpees for every $5 donation.

What's a burpee, you ask? Well, you can see it demonstrated in this video. But I can sum it up as one of my least favorite exercise moves. I once got tricked into taking a boot camp class, in which we were doing, like, fifteen burpees in a row, as part of a series of exercises. I could barely walk when we were done!

But there are some ambitious people at Wilcox Wellness and Fitness in Bangor who are promising to do a burpee for every $5 they raise toward buying Thanksgiving turkeys. This is the third year for the Burpees for Turkeys event, with nearly $10,000 raised last year. That's nearly 2,000 burpees! The money raised is donated to the Good Shepherd Food Bank.

In a media release, the fitness center said over 200,000 people in Maine face food insecurity, which means they lack access to sufficient amounts of nutritious, affordable food. This doesn't only involve the homeless, but also the 'working poor,' who have to make tough choices between having a place to live and buying enough to eat. Perhaps the saddest statistic is that 1 in 5 children in Maine are food insecure.

Burpees for Turkeys will be held on Saturday, November 18th at noon at the fitness center, 224 Union Street in Bangor. The public is welcome to attend, cheer on the participants, and, of course, donate!