Fellow members and Cross Fitters,
I’m sure a number of you are aware, but the CEO and creator of CrossFit is under fire. This is bringing all of the CrossFit community and methodology, under the social microscope this weekend. As owners, Rocky and I have considered for the last year of disaffiliating from CrossFit, but have been awaiting our 2020 renewal for final decision. That conversation has come to a head this week with Greg Glassman’s tweets, the lack of HQ Covid-19 support / resources, and an apparent disconnect from the small boxes around the world. Many CrossFit communities like ours are disaffiliating quickly, so we felt the need to address where Violet Community stands.
Violet Community values, programming, and vision are all meticulously created and selected by Rocky and I, not CrossFit HQ. We value our diverse community and cannot express enough gratitude for the commitment of our members over the last 2.5 years. Personally, this decision is painful for us, and we do not want to make rash decisions based on one person. Rocky and I started this business together, under the CrossFit umbrella because we believed in the bigger messages of community, health, fitness and the fight against big soda companies. CrossFit has brought all of you into our lives and has brought this business to Pickerington and we will be forever grateful for that.
With that being said, Violet Community will remain with or without “CrossFit” on the door. When we were all under quarantine, we were doing CrossFit at home. And, I speak for myself when I say, it was NOT the same. We know many of you felt the same way. Clearly it’s not CFHQ or simply the methodology that brings us together. It’s the community. It’s the friend that you chase during a 200m run and the one who pushes you to do another set of wall balls. It’s the ones who message you when you haven’t been there for a few days and the memes about being sore on our FB group.
We’ve said it before and will say as often as we need to, what makes our little corner of the world special is all of you. We have been proud to have a wide variety of people walk through these doors over the years. Y’alls differences in background, upbringing, athletic history, jobs, musical tastes, recommended books, t-shirts with sayings, and so on are what make our time together so rewarding. We’ve had classes where there were 3 different native languages spoken, and people were teaching each other the word for “heavy” or “boss” or “excellent”. We have had classes where the age range was 40+ years.
What keeps us together is our mutual respect and support. We care about our local community, and how we can influence the world. We care about the impact of drugs on the family, and have routinely participated in Tyler’s Light Run. We care about our military and have held drives for supplies to be sent overseas. We’ve donated to Steve’s Club, for at risk and underserved youth. We have co-hosted Strongman competitions, proceeds benefiting Carry The Load. We care about our police / fire people and have taken dozens of people to the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. We have been a gathering place for donations to Foster Care Christmas, as a way to reach those in our immediate community. We’ve collected shoes to send to developing countries to support their local entrepreneurs and economy via Sneakers for Funds.
We are committed to our local community and we are committed to standing up for what we believe in, including how we spend our money. We believe that racism is real and needs dismantled. We will not tolerate discrimination and prejudice. We believe gay lives matter. We believe that black lives matter. We will be watching CrossFit leaders closely and will be glad to speak with anyone who has a question or concern about the values and position of Violet Community.