Baseline Fitness Gives Back Over the Holidays

During the holidays, Baseline Fitness wanted to take the opportunity to give back both to the community and to their own team members – lending a hand to those in need embodies the spirit of the holidays and Planet Fitness®.

The group undertook its second annual Ugly Sweater 5K Your Way, which was put on by the Baseline Support Team in mid-December. For this event, participants were encouraged to sign up, donate what they could, find an ugly sweater and do any version of a 5K they wanted. Since Baseline Fitness has 63 clubs spread across eight states, most of the events they put on were done in a virtual format.

“We had participants walking, running, biking, rowing, elliptical-ing, you name it!” said Emily Dobmeier, director of learning and development for Baseline Fitness. “The event was meant to be in good fun, and the donations that were received as race registrations went to a team member in one of our locations to provide Christmas for her children.”

The Baseline Support Team was created in early 2020, and its mission is to provide a way for team members to support other team members. “It is a volunteer donation pool that is used to distribute funds to team members in need,” Dobmeier explained. “As the Baseline Support Team, our mission is to provide short-term financial assistance to team members who have fallen on unexpected hardship.”

In addition to supporting a team member in need this holiday season, Baseline Fitness also wanted to support its community. The annual managers’ meeting in October 2021 allowed them the opportunity to meet Daryll Thompson, founder and president of Bolder Options, as Thompson was the keynote speaker at the event. The Baseline Fitness team has been working with their outreach group to organize volunteer opportunities ever since.

“Bolder Options provides wellness-based mentoring for middle school youth in the Minneapolis area,” Dobmeier explained. “We got involved over the holiday season by participating in a winter gear drive. All items collected were distributed to local teens to make sure they had the proper attire to enjoy the winter season and be active outdoors.”

When giving back over the holidays, looking close to home – both in the community and on the Planet Fitness team – can reveal plenty of people in need of a kind gesture.