The action won’t be as hard-hitting, but it will still be fast-paced.
Members of the Harbour City Rollers roller derby team will be among those participating in the Move With Meaning fitness challenge this Saturday (Oct. 29).
The fundraising event, which benefits Haven Society, consists of four hours of workouts in a variety of disciplines including zumba, belly fit, hip-hop, cross-training and yoga sessions.
Darlene (Dar the Star) Stevens, Rollers player, said her team wants to support the community and also try to create awareness about derby programs.
She thinks the Rollers will be able to handle the four hours of fitness.
“We do a lot of cross-training,” she said. “They may push us out of our comfort zone, but I think we’re going to do well with this.”
Move With Meaning, hosted by Super You, will take place at the Nanaimo Ecumenical Centre on Spartan Road.
Gillian Goerzen, owner of Super You, said she was inspired at an International Women's Day event to raise money for Haven Society and liked the idea of the Workout to Conquer Cancer in Vancouver.
"I wanted to make it scalable for me to be able to organize and make something like that happen here," she said.
She's partnering with Island Optimal, Moksha Yoga, Vibe Dance and a private zumba and belly-fit instructor.
"It's … meant to be an inspiring day, not just about groaning through the exercises," Goerzen said. "Certainly it's about having some fun and camaraderie and supporting one annother. There's challenging segments, but it'll be fun."
The event is sold out with 50 women participating. Each is required to raise a minimum of $100 for charity, but Goerzen is hoping some will go above and beyond to raise $10,000 total.
For more information, please visit www.superyou.ca/movewithmeaning. To support the Rollers’ fundraising efforts, please visit www.facebook.com/harbourcityrollers.
Rollers recruiting
In other roller derby news, the Rollers are recruiting ‘fresh meat’ all this month. Stevens said now that the season is over, it’s the perfect time for newcomers to get involved.
“We’re able to devote time to training and getting people’s skills up to par and ready to go,” she said.
Stevens said moving forward, the Rollers are going to put more emphasis on promoting different levels of the sport.
“We’re going to be able to take people from basically Bambi on ice, I don’t know how to skate, all the way up to fully competitive and ready to go and play at that super competitive level,” she said.
For information about joining the Rollers, please visit the Facebook page or e-mail nanaimorollergirls@gmail.com.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com