Compete for Causes fitness fundraiser raises $104,883 for charities
Del Mar Times by Karen Billing, Aug 29, 2024
Locally founded organization Compete for Causes matches fitness with philanthropy, challenging people to get healthy and keep moving all while lifting up worthy nonprofit organizations.
Founded last year by a group of local men, Compete for Causes has led four competitions and their contest this spring was their biggest yet. They had 84 participants who got active in any way they could to raise $104,883 for four charities including the Mayo Clinic, A Bridge for Kids, Sanford Burnham Prebys and ConnectMed.
The upcoming Compete for Causes challenge starting on Oct. 5 will benefit the Make-a-Wish Foundation. “People are doing this because they don’t mind paying to raise money for charity and exercising,” said co-founder Jeff Szekeres, a Solana Beach resident. “They get a benefit out of it at the same time.”
The idea for Compete for Causes all started with a trip up Mt. Whitney. After Szekeres and his friends Adam Rhodes, Andre Niemeyer and Mike Coward won a permit to climb Mt. Whitney last spring, they began training together and pushing each other through virtual challenges based on miles, calories and vertical feet.
All of them got into great shape to summit the mountain and they were so fired up they wanted a create a way to channel that positive energy into something bigger. Since organizing their first challenge in December, Compete for Causes has contributed more than $120,000 to local charities from over 170 participants: “We are on to something special,” Szekeres said.
For the May contest, each participant had an $80 buy-in and Compete for Causes was able to boost their charitable donation by securing pledges from donors. Participants use an Apple iPhone with the fitness app to track their daily individual goals based on age, weight or gender—they aim to close their red “Move” ring that measures active calories.
“We were fortunate to convince high net worth donors that this was worthwhile,” Szekeres said. “If you closed your ring every day, you earned $100 from somebody else’s pledge donation.”
Had people not worked out as hard they would have earned less and the Compete for Causes crew worked hard to keep people motivated every day. “It was a really fun competition,” Szekeres said. The contest included lots of friends of friends, teachers from school, locals as well as people who live out of state.
The top person in the competition, Brian James, was exercising three to four hours a day and earned about $3,000 from the donor pledge. Participant Sara Lake of Carmel Valley said she was walking nine miles a day to keep up. There would be times when Szekeres’ wife Amy was doing laps around the couch at home just to close her rings.
“The really cool thing was everyone I talked to said that they exercised more,” said Rhodes, a Carmel Valley resident. “They did more than they usually did, which was really neat.” Rhodes had a lot of family in the contest, including his wife and both of his parents. “Everyone really went for it.” Sweat Circuit in Del Mar even offered participants a free HIIT class. Throughout the 21-day competition, 80% of participants achieved their targets. They burned 1,118,032 Move calories or 739 calories per person per day.
During the break between official competitions, the men behind Compete for Causes haven’t stopped moving —the group of friends is heading back up Mt. Whitney this October and are challenging each other to get as much vertical elevation gain as possible.
“Not only do I have to run but I have to go run on hills because if I just run flat areas, I get zero credit on the leaderboard,” said the competitive Szekeres, who had plans that day to run one of his favorite local spots to get vertical: the San Dieguito County Park trails.
Whoever can get more vertical by the end of the month wins the challenge. Szekeres said if he wins, he will make Rhodes take the dessert of his choosing up to the top of Mt. Whitney—he is thinking he would like to enjoy a pint of Chunky Monkey atop the 14,450 ft. peak. Rhodes lost the last challenge to Szekeres and had to haul Jeff’s snacks—he said he does not expect to lose this year.
A little friendly competition is always good, supporting and pushing each other to improve, get stronger and live a healthier life. And with Compete for Causes, the added benefit of putting in the work is being able to give back. “This has been an unbelievably fun ride with so much support from the community and to see all these people exercising more and raising money, it’s just been really, really fun,” Rhodes said.
Compete for Causes will be doing signups for the October challenge throughout the month of September with the goal to get 100 to 150 people to participate. For more information and to join the mailing list visit competeforcauses.com
Locals’ Compete for Causes group gets people moving while supporting charity
Del Mar Times by Karen Billing, March 26, 2024
A group of local friends and dads started a grassroots effort to give back to charity while getting fit.
With Compete for Causes, participants put up money to compete in a calorie-burning challenge against each other. Whether it’s climbing mountains, going for a run, playing pickleball, shooting hoops or taking a brisk walk—the goal is to get moving as much as possible.
The healthy competition not only encourages people to be more active, it also raises funds to support various charities. So far, they have raised more than $14,000 from 77 participants in just their first two challenges.
“People are eager to integrate fitness improvement and charity, increasing philanthropic giving and raising awareness for new organizations,” said co-founder Jeff Szekeres, a Solana Beach resident.
The idea for Compete for Causes was born when Szekeres and his friends Adam Rhodes, Michael Coward, Michael Karres, and Denham McCall won a permit to climb Mt. Whitney in spring 2023 and began training together to climb the 14,450-ft. peak.
“Our wives thought we might get hurt so we did challenges as way to get fit,” said Rhodes, a physician at Scripps.
Over six months of training, the dads got in the best shape of their lives as they competed against each other in monthly, virtual challenges based on miles, calories and vertical feet. They tracked their progress using the “Move” ring on their Apple iPhone fitness app. The competition was fierce and there were even attempts at sabotage like leaving pints of ice cream on each other’s doorsteps (Chunky Monkey anyone?).
“We had such a good time, we lost a lot of weight and were motivated. Everyone summited, ” said Szekeres of the climb that took 18 hours and burned 3,691 calories. “There was this amazing energy and intensity that we hadn’t experienced since college in sports. We’re impact people and we thought, how can we channel this into something good?”
For their first fitness challenge in December, they brought in more participants and worked to turn that competitive fire toward charity. A total of 19 people competed virtually for seven days, putting money at risk if they didn’t meet their daily calorie goals which were calibrated to their weight, gender and age.
They raised $11,400 for 15 cancer-related nonprofits and the top finishers split $1,560 in awards.
For their next challenge in January, the competition was tailored slightly different with each person having a $50 buy-in with 20% going to charity and “dividend” payments going back to those who met their fitness goals. They had 58 people competing, including Rhodes’ mother who lives in Florida and several members of his family spread out across the country.
“It was fun exercising with family, we got to keep track of each other and send each other messages,” Rhodes said. “My mom walks all day and then my sister and brother-in-law were doing cross country skiing and shoveling snow, it all counts to burn calories.”
Three people ended up tied for first place: Brad Good of Rancho Santa Fe, Laura Randolph of Solana Beach and Rhodes’ mother, Linda Rhodes-Pauly. Thanks to donations, participants also won gift cards and prizes from local businesses such as Vuori, Fleet Feet Sports, Dough Momma Pizzeria and Shore Rider Restaurant.
For the January challenge, they teamed up with friend and Carmel Valley resident Juliet Torykian, who handles community relations for local nonprofit ConnectMed. The challenge raised $1,760 for the organization, which supports physical fitness and activities for these medically complex children.
“By partnering with Compete for Causes, ConnectMed was able to raise additional donations as well as introduce new people to its mission: improving access to healthcare and the quality of life for youth with physical differences and disabilities,” said Torykian, who herself competed in the fitness challenge.
It was her first time wearing an Apple Watch and she was motivated by seeing those rings closed and by connecting with friends through the app and seeing their progress: “It makes you put on your running shoes,” she said.
Torykian said something she loved about the competition was how it builds community in a really cool way. Because of the competition, she took more walks with her close friend, Szekeres’ wife Amy. A total of six pairs of husband and wives teams competed against each other and the group’s social media was active with encouragement and playful smack talk.
Torykian said Szekeres and Rhodes have great senses of humor and take on online personas to keep people engaged and motivated—Szekeres as a cowboy and Rhodes as a sports announcer. Rhodes even hired sports radio host Dan Patrick to make a Cameo video to help drive the competition.
Participants have also gotten very creative about ways to move and work more activity into their everyday lives.
Rhodes said once you put money at risk, you’ll find yourself walking up a random set of stairs for 10 minutes just to close that ring.
“We have definitely found skiing burns a lot of calories so I’ve been up a lot more,” said Rhodes, who also uses a treadmill desk so he can move while he’s doing paperwork and while being interviewed by a local reporter.
An activity Szekeres picked up last summer was rucking—he started walking up hills with 30 pounds in a backpack to better optimize his calorie-burning: “I can’t just walk, I have to walk with a high heart rate.”
In the last competition, Szekeres was at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center for his daughter’s basketball game when he saw Rhodes running up the stairs with weights in his hands. He filmed him and posted it on social media for some gentle ribbing.
“I only had an hour while my son was in tennis lessons,” Rhodes explained with a laugh. “These are the type of novel things that start happening when you’re being efficient about burning calories.”
Szekeres agreed: “When you get in this mindset, any idle time you use.”
As he travels a lot for work, rather than just sitting at the gate, he finds himself walking the airport to get three miles in and close his ring.
“There is a lot of mindfulness that is created by the competition to close your ring with small hours of the day,” he said.
Szekeres said he is still coming up with their next challenge and he’s hoping to make it their biggest yet. They hope to create a buzz around Compete for Causes and for more people to get in touch if they are interested in going in.
“Our biggest goal is to raise a lot of money for charities, and get friends and family active,” said Rhodes.
Their website competeforcauses.com is under construction, find them on social media on Facebook at Compete for Causes and Instagram @compete_for_causes