Concept2 Holiday Challenge Raises More Than $31,000 for Disaster Relief

January 25, 2012

When Concept2 first came up with the idea of having a holiday challenge, they were trying to engage their customer base and give them a reason to keep moving from Thanksgiving through Christmas.

“We were trying to give our customers a chance to have a goal at a time of year where everybody is trying to stay in shape and beat some of the holiday weight gain,” said Meredith Haff, who heads up the rowing company’s marketing and new customer development. Three years ago, a fundraising component was added to the challenge and a goal of $30,000 was established.

This year, the 12th annual challenge was held to raise money for disaster relief charities in the wake of several natural disasters, including one designated for Vermont residents who suffered losses during Hurricane Irene last summer.

Maybe it was because Vermont is the home base for the leading rowing machine manufacturer, but for the first time the fundraising goal was exceeded when 5,900 participants either rowed or skied 100 or 200 kilometers during the holiday period.

For every person who completed the 100-kilometer goal, Concept2 donated two cents for every kilometer. For every kilometer past 100, Concept2 donated an additional four cents. In total, 1,294,391,305 meters were completed, raising a total of $31,018.36.    

Of that, $12,168.59 was donated to the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund. Other charities that benefited from the fund raising event were the American Red Cross Disaster Relief-International and Unicef-Emergency Relief Programs.

“We try to be sensitive to the fact that people may want to chose a charity that is closer to them, but the fact that people chose Vermont was wonderful,” Haff said. “This past year was well known for many disasters, whether it was tornados or earthquakes.

“There were international things happening, but the fact is, our own backyard was pretty devastated by the aftermath of Hurricane Irene,” she said. “While our offices and our employees seemed to escape much damage, it still really hit our community hard. Even just a town or two away, people lost entire homes.

“It was really flattering that people took the opportunity to support our Vermont organization because that was the most popular charity,” Haff said.

Ed Moran

Features