PUKIE

Results are in from the Second Annual 2009 Pukie Awards Fight Gone Bad IV Film Fest!

Submissions were off the hook this year. Thank you to all video entries and voters. Every video showed tremendous effort, creativity and skill. If you keep this up, we may have to create more categories next year! Big props to each of you!

Videos were judged on a combination of public appeal and a panel of CrossFit Judges. Winners will be notified directly. 1st Place will be sent the coveted Pukie Award Trophy and Apple iPod. Runner-Up will receive the Pukie Plaque.

WINNERS:

Best Video:
CrossFit CFT (Nashville, TN)
watch video

Runner Up:
SLC (Midvale, UT)
watch video

Best Soundtrack:
CrossFit Central (Austin, TX)
(Kudos to the editor)
watch video

Runner Up:
Guerilla Fitness (NJ)
watch video

Honorable Mention:
Bryan Kemper of CrossFit Alaska
watch video

Bryan Kemper, member of Team Crossfit Alaska, is currently deployed to
Joint Base Balad, Iraq, and decided to complete Fight Gone Bad wearing
his body armor in support of the cause. His video was taken with a
Blackberry Pearl smartphone.

2008 Winner Best Video: JoGo/CrossFit Bellingham WA: watch video

To see all 2009 submissions: click here

Thank you, and we’ll see you next year!

324 Crossfitters
1852 Donors
$117,311

2007

891 Crossfitters
4200 Donors
$283,701

2008

2426 Crossfitters
10,000 Donors
$627,000

Fight Gone Bad (the fundraising event) was born one hot day at Crossfit LA after I’d just finished Fight Gone Bad (the Pukie Award Winning workout) with Andy Petranek. I’d been either developing programs, or fundraising through sports for programs, for 20 years. I’d just taken on the job of developing a new model for sports fundraising by the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

As Andy and I regained our color and compared scores, it seemed like the most natural event in the world to put together. The community was populated by people who could relate to pain and suffering, and we both knew even back then that Crossfitters would go all out at anything they did.

The rest as they say, is history. Four months later, Fight Gone Bad had raised more than $120,000 with only 59 affiliates competing. More important than the money was the opportunity that the event provided for people to touch the lives of more than 2 million American families dealing with prostate cancer. A fact that only becomes apparent after you’ve done an event like this is how isolated and underserved the cancer community is in general, and the prostate cancer community specifically

That first year, it was hard to tell who was more touched by the overwhelming support of the community, the hundreds of thousands of people who felt a little less alone and forgotten that day, or the Crossfitters who found a way to reach them by giving everything they had for 17 minutes.

The event came to mean so much to so many that last year we were able to incorporate a second beneficiary, the Wounded Warrior Project. What better group to support than the one that day in, day out strives to fill the gaps in services our returning soldiers must face?

From that first inspiration to this day, Fight Gone Bad has been the fight gone better for thousands of Americans who were looking for help and found it in our little corner of the world. I hope you’ll join in this year to reach our goal of raising more than $1million.

Sincerely,

Scott Zagarino

That was a time when every young man was called to serve — every husband, every father, every son, and every brother. In each community across the nation, ordinary Americans did what they could to support the war effort on the homefront. We were a nation at war, connected by our hopes, our fears, and our compassion for the brave young soldiers fighting abroad.

Today, young men and women are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 30,000 of them are returning wounded in body – many more in mind and spirit. Unlike the men who gathered on Katherine Phillip’s porch, they are often the only ones in their communities to have experienced battlefields, to have held dying comrades, or to have comforted traumatically injured friends. With whom are these soldiers sharing those life-changing experiences? More than ever, these men and women need a Front Porch – they need a place of healing. And that’s what Wounded Warrior Project is all about.

Our mission is to build a new front porch. To raise public awareness about their needs, to help wounded warriors help each other, and to deliver unique programs to ensure that this is the most successful, well adjusted generation of wounded veterans in our history.
WWP’s staff have committed to making 2008 a year that highlights outreach. These injured men and women have access to an excellent network of resources while recovering in military trauma centers and medical facilities. As rehabilitation progresses, these individuals return to their home communities, where they often face isolation and a disconnect from the support and encouragement needed to continue recovering. So many of these injuries include traumatic brain injuries, amputations, and blindness which will continue to present challenges for these warriors for the rest of their lives. Wounded warriors need to know that they will have the support of the American people as they transition into civilian life and beyond.

Through WWP’s outreach program, our goal is to personally touch the lives of every individual who has been severely injured during the global war on terror. During the first year of the program, we will be hiring a mobile outreach team of approximately 25 wounded warriors as summer interns to visit communities across America and personally meet with injured service members in that region and build a metaphorical equivalent of a Front Porch. During the visits, the warriors will provide information about WWP’S programs and events, benefits, and education and employment programs available, as well as other information pertinent to injured service members. Most importantly, the visits will provide a place of healing, where veterans can receive the support and encouragement they need to move forward. Active outreach programs are critical to ensuring that this generation of veterans does not fall victim to the homelessness, unemployment, and substance abuse that Vietnam veterans faced during their transition back into civilian life.