Saturday October 17th from 8:30am-2pm

Next Level Strength and Conditioning will be hosting a fundraiser to raise money for Muddy’s Buddies! There will be fitness challenges, free demos for our Youth Class as well as Sports Performance classes, raffles, silent auctions and much more. Bring yourself, bring your team, bring your family, all for a good cause and for good health! Stay tuned and hope to see you there!

Check out Next Level’s Website for more details.

Plan for the Day

8:30-9:30 FREE ROOTS Group General Fitness Class (OPEN TO ALL AGES/ ABILITY LEVELS!)

9:30-10:30 Group Fitness Challenge (Will be modified for all ability levels)

10:30-11 Free Youth FUNdamentals class (Ages 6-10)
11-1 Lunch
During lunch…11-12 FREE High School and Middle School Demo Session
1-2 Raffles (50/50 etc), Auctuion Items

Contributed by Tim Lawrence

Well, I have to say I called it. The weather was perfect, and the games were perfect-er.

The MB Lacrosse Festival was a HUGE success, and Billy Fucillo had nothing to do with it. The two-day lax extravaganza was held on May 5 and 19 and over 500 athletes played games on almost 50 boys and girls teams under the sunniest of skies, and some people (no names mentioned here, ahem…you know who you are…) did not heed the advice of yours truly when he so sagely and magnanimously suggested the use of sunblock. Apparently some festival-goers were feeling the sun-kisses for several days after.

The Lax Fest raised over $13,000 dollars this year, almost a 20% increase from the proceeds raised in the 2012 festival.  That is a fantastic achievement and the money goes to the Buddies and their families to support them in their struggles with childhood illnesses including cancer. There are now nineteen Buddies supported by teams and clubs across four counties in Western New York.

The dinero came from team entry fees, T-shirt sales, concessions, and raffles of all sorts of cool stuff, but the MB Fest would not have gotten off the ground at all without the “Best Buddy” sponsors. They were everywhere on those two Sundays in May. They were Doyle Chevrolet and Subaru, Brand Integrity!, Rochester Eye Associates, Dunn Tire, Meliora Advisors, QCI Asset Management Inc., Nancy & Friends–Fighting Cancer Inc., Gauss Sales, Inc.

I cannot believe that there were over 400 T-shirts sold, although I will admit I bought three of ‘em. That hot pink color was ssss-weeet.  I really loved that super-charged neon yellow color, but it made my eyes look orange.  All of the raffles raised over $3000 dollars. BTW I would like to talk to one of the people who won the Abby Wambach balls. I would be willing to negotiate. Call me or text me.

The craziest thing was that they sold over 20 pounds of USDA ground beef for the ever-popular and delish Taco-in-a- Bag. If you were there on the second day of the Lax Fest, you might have seen the dude dumpster-diving for bottles and cans. Well, he came up with over 400 returnable bottles (over $21 worth) and about the same number of sports drink bottles. Ya know there’s no refund for the sports drink bottles (like Gatorade or Powerade) but keeping it green and recycling all those bottles is well worth the effort.

But forget all that, the MB Lax Fest 2013 earned some mad cash for all the Buddies. There were great games, sick goals, 16 hours of sunshine and not a single drop of rain. The Great Mud Man would say “Great Job.  The Buddies won, but don’t forget the sunblock.”

It’s supposed to be beautiful today for the Dude’s Edition of the Fourth Annual Muddy’s Buddies Lacrosse Festival on Sunday, May 19^th. The boys’ teams start at 8 AM on the turf field of the Reifsteck Stadium at Brighton High School.

Part One of the MB Lax Festival was two weeks ago, May 5, at the same place, same times. And the girls crushed it– the weather could not have been better, there were some great games and sick goals, the T-shirts this year are killer, and the food rocked. They had taco-in-a-bag, hot dogs and such– comin’ right off your Bar-B-Q grill.

I am psyched, because the weather should be perfect—they’re sayin’ in the 70’s, so not super-hot, but shorts should be good, and it won’t be super sunny.  But you better wear the sunscreen anyway, just to be safe. Muddy would want all of his Buddies to be all over the sunblock, or maybe he would say “Buddies, make sure it’s all over you.”  Ha-Ha.

And all of the proceeds (I am talking about the cabbage, the dough, the rubles, the dollars, yo…) from the games and concessions go to Muddy’s Buddies and their families. Those are the kids that the whole Muddy’s Buddies thing is about– MB helps kids with cancer (or other chronic conditions) by pairing them up with school sports teams for support, friendship, and encouragement. So the Buddies, and there are 17 of ‘em at this point, might go to team events, like games, practices, pasta parties or just for your general hanging out.

Ya know the Great Muddy, himself, was all about kids and kids’ bein’ safe and smart. He was a great athlete and a great coach himself, but an even better teacher. He taught English and he was big on kids expressing themselves in all different ways—like writing in a journal, talking about a poem or a movie, making a sweet pass for an assist, or just takin’ a long bike ride. He believed everybody was an artist AND an athlete!

Muddy’s Buddies has been helping children who have been touched by cancer and other chronic illnesses in Rochester for nearly 4 years now. And as we enter another Spring season, I can’t help to think about how much Muddy’s Buddies continues to grow and evolve. It amazes me to think about how the community has reached out and helped us become what we are today. Thanks to such wonderful and overwhelming community support, we have succeeded in becoming what our motto promises, we increased our numbers and we have become stronger. And, more importantly, we have made others stronger as well.

And the numbers continue to grow. We are stretched across 4 different counties in Western New York. We are connected with 10 different school districts, one college, and one professional sports team. We are 17 different teams, 11 different sports, 1 dance group and 1 amazing jazz band. We have made 17^th buddy connections and anticipate that a couple more connections will commence in the coming days.

We have connected with more than a dozen families, we have reached hundreds of athletes, dozens of musicians, dozens of dancers, and a thousands of fans. But there remains plenty of work to do. We show no signs of slowing and the support we continue to receive from the community shows no signs of slowing either. We raised nearly $12,000 in 2012 and anticipate that we will surpass that number this year. We also anticipate more opportunities to support families in need in greater ways and with greater frequency. We are grateful for the support and we remain committed to improving the lives of children and their families whose lives have been impacted by difficult medical conditions. We are “Building Strength in Numbers.”

The 4th Annual Muddy’s Buddies Lax Fest is 2 weeks away. It is time to begin acknowledging our “Best Buddy” Sponsors. With their support we continue to support dozens of families in need across Western New York. This year’s sponsors are:

Nancy and Friends Fighting Cancer, Inc.

Brand Integrity Inc, “The Experience Management Company”

Dunn Tire– 31 Location in New York and Pennsylvania

Doyle Chevrolet– Family Owned and Operated Since 1939

QCI Asset Management Company

Rochester Eye Associates– Eye Care for All Ages

Meliora Advisors

Gauss Sales– Sportswear Distributor