GYMTOPIA
A Place Where Clubs Do Social Good
By Toni Krasicki Toni Krasicki
By
community view the local school, library or football team.
centre or ‘heart’ of the community rather than seen as
sitting on the edge and perceived as simply ‘taking’ from
the community.
The idea for Gymtopia came to me when I was speaking
with Richard Bilton, President of Companhia Athletica
at the 2012 IHRSA Fitness Brasil Conference in Sao
Paulo. Richard was telling me about a shoe collection
project their clubs had started. The simple idea was to
ask members to bring in their old gym shoes when they
were about to replace them. The shoes were laundered,
bagged and passed to Symap, a Brasilian charity
providing running training to individuals who could
not afford to buy specialist-training shoes. Companhia
Athletica collected 700 pairs of shoes to kick-start the
project and is now collecting just under 4,000 pairs each
year. I was fascinated by Richard’s project for several
reasons:
How big could this shoe project become if other
clubs around the world were inspired to get
involved? It does not take long for the idea to spread
and create momentum.
‘U
Ray Algar, founder of a newly launched digital ‘story telling’ platform for the
to him it ‘describes the ‘perfect’ gym – a place where remarkable things take place,
both inside and outside of the club.’ Launched in June 2013, the site endeavours to
capture the social impact projects that are taking place around the globe that have
Whether it involves generating funding to provide
opportunities for the underprivileged to get involved in
sports or supporting a charity in their life-saving research,
locally, nationally or internationally, the sharing of ‘social
good’ projects is a way to simply get more people
At this early stage, the Australian Fitness Industry is yet to
come onboard but word is spreading, especially with
the help of advocates such as Justin Tamsett at Active
about Gymtopia and what he hopes to achieve by
launching the site.
projects that are taking place. These are stories that
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Why are these inspiring and socially worthwhile club
projects not more ‘discoverable’ by others around
So the idea I had that da