COLORADO SPRINGS — A local non-profit organization got a surprise visit Thursday night.
Army Veteran Patrick Parker also known as "Sergeant Pushup" is traveling across the country doing pushups to raise awareness about bullying and funds to fight childhood hunger. He brought his campaign to OneBody Ent. which serves youth and adults by helping them prevent criminal offenses and re-offenses through arts and entertainment.
"I heard about OneBody Ent., and the couple is great. This is what it's all about, young people doing great things. Kids need to see young people doing great things, and they are leading the example for younger children," said Parker.
He decided to help raise funds for the organization's free Thanksgiving dinner on November 13.
"We have 13 million children who go to bed without eating, and 3,069 kids that attempt suicide every day. It's not about what I did in Iraq, but how I am serving my nation and making my country better," said Parker.
His goal was to do 1,000 pushups at the fundraising event, and encourage others to join along and donate funds.
"It turned out great. We had the little ones here and they wanted to challenge "Sergeant Pushup." Kids have a bunch of energy, and I have the energy too. It's all about bringing awareness to the children. This book, Sergeant Pushup, talks to the kids about germs and I had to pushups for these books as well. When people sponsor these books, I have to give them to kids so I gave some to kids and gave out books on bullying," said Parker.
"Our next event is our Thanksgiving dinner on November 13. Men of Influence is a new group within our organization and those funds will go toward that dinner as well as ongoing activities that we're having. We have the Black History program coming up, we started our auditions on November 28 on Black Friday for Black History. So we need the funding to get the costumes and gas to get the families to practice. Whatever it takes to get that program up and going for February," said Jennifer Smith, Co-founder and Executive Director of OneBody Ent.
The fundraiser raised over $200 for OneBody Ent. For those interested in donating to the non-profit organization, visit their website.
