The Great Empower Community

I go to the most wonderful gym. This is a powerful statement from a non-athletic person for me to say. I hate working out, but I love going to Empower. It is not the exercise but the people I like. Over the many years working out there I have had quite a few trainers, but I have gotten to know and love all the trainers. When you work out one-on-one you talk to everyone to just help keep your mind off the torture of trying to keep a past middle aged body working. 
A couple of years ago I knew that the assistant manager Nestor and his wife Ashley had found their dream home and were about to close on it. The day came for closing and I went to work out and my then trainer,Tiffani told me that Nestor had been diagnosed with a glioblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. Nestor, at 34 was the picture of health. It was quite a shock.
One of the best things about living in Durham is the access to world class medical facilities. One of the best things about working out at Empower is that many of the people working out next to you are the physicians who run those facilities. Nestor happen to train Dr. Henry Friedman of the Tisch Brain Tumor Center the top Neuro-Oncology Doctor in the world. Thanks to the team at Duke they were able to save Nestor’s life and today he is back to the picture of health having just done the crazy thing of a 100 mile race.
The Empower team believe in giving back and Team Nestor has been dauntless in raising money for the Tisch Brain Center. A few months ago Nestor called me and asked if I would be the auctioneer for a fund raiser BBQ they were going to have. When have I ever turned down being the auctioneer? Never, except for the “no kill cat shelter,” but for Nestor and the Empower team I gave an enthusiastic yes.
When we prepped for the event last week it turned out the auction items were more of the silent auction type. So I said we could do a donation auction where I just ask people to just give money. Thanks to the many people who love Nestor we had a great turn out and Dr. Henry Friedman came which was a real pleasure. The crowd knew why they were there. I told them out front that I was going to be asking them for money the asked Nestor some questions and Dr. Friedman about what they would do with the money. Nestor pulled on the heart string and Dr. Friedman laid out the goals, largest of which is the end of brain cancer. Then the “cash” auction began.
I asked anyone who wanted to donate $500 to raise their paddle. My friend Dave was the first to do it, then Barry, Michelle and Richard and many others. Then I asked for $250 the. $100 and so on. In five minutes we raised over $7,600 from a group of people who all go to the same gym. It is wonderful what community can do. Thanks Empower for being a community I love to be part of, even if I hate working out.
Note: this was yesterday’s blog, but due to the giant rain our internet was out and nothing could be posted