Sweat And Tears Help Raise Funds For Avenue Of Flags

The Honor Guard was on hand at Oskaloosa Crossfit OFC for the ‘Murph’ WOD challenge.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Oskaloosa Crossfit OFC held their annual ‘Murph’ WOD Challenge on Memorial Day. This year, the challenge came with another challenge, to help raise $1000 dollars for the Avenue of Flags at Forest Cemetery.

The local American Legion and VFW honor guard were on hand to open the challenge for the participants.

If you’re not familiar with the ‘Murph’, it’s a workout routine that starts off with a one-mile run, followed by 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats, and then another one-mile run.

The ‘Murph’ is named in honor of Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005.

According to CrossFit, “This workout was one of Mike’s favorites, and he’d named it ‘Body Armor’. From here on it will be referred to as “Murph” in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is.”

Lisa Alderson said at last count, Crossfit OFC was approaching $1100 raised to benefit the Avenue of Flags.

Those dollars were raised when people sponsored others to complete the challenge. “We love doing it as a way to honor those that sacrificed for us,” added Alderson, who participated in the challenge. “We just love doing it every year. We look forward to it. We have a great turnout.”

This year was different than in the past; the challenge was open to anyone from the community, not just for members of the gym. “We had a lot of people that came out for the first time to try it,” said Alderson. “We had a lot of people that just donated money and then let us do it in honor of whoever was special to them.”

“We just thought it was a fantastic turnout,” added Alderson.