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Heaslip raises bar for care

NANAIMO – Children benefit from weightlifting event next month
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James MacIntyre of Studio Kitchens presents a $500 cheque to Rhonda Heaslip for the Raise the Bar for Kids campaign.

Rhonda Heaslip is helping to raise the bar for children’s medical care in the province.

She started the campaign Raise the Bar for Kids to raise money for the Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Nanaimo’s Studio Kitchens recently donated $500 to help support Heaslip’s goal.

Heaslip, the winner of multiple national powerlifting championships and the current ational and Commonwealth powerlifting record holder, created the Raise the Bar for Kids campaign.

She’s hosting an event Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. at Woodgrove Centre. She’ll lift more than 158 kilograms. The weight lifting event is to raise more awareness about her campaign. Her goal is to raise $15,000 for the foundation.

“As a mother of three and grandmother of three, I want to help the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation. I am positive that everyone knows someone who has either been a patient in, or had or knows a child who was a patient in this wonderful life-saving hospital,” said Heaslip, in a press release. “I want to do the heavy lifting, so the kids don’t have to.”

After high school, Heaslip became a certified airframe technician working in search and rescue squadrons with the Canadian Armed Forces.

Following her military experience, she became a journeyman carpenter through a four-year apprenticeship program with Local 527 in Nanaimo and worked for several years in that field.

Her fitness interests led her to power lifting during her military career and, despite years of bringing home medals from competitions around the world, she has never stopped trying to raise the bar on her own abilities.

“At age 53 I broke all my own national records again and totaled 15 kilos more than I did at age 36,” she said.

For more information or to donate to Raise the Bar please go to www.raisethebarforkids.ca.