Athletes For the Quality of Life

Love! We all experience this wonderful feeling.  If we are lucky we get to experience many wonderful relationships in our lifetime.  And when our love is taken away it can leave us empty inside and very sad.  But that love is still there even though they are physically gone.

Our very dear friends, Chris and Bri, had to let their love go yesterday.  Their love was Duke, their Great Dane, their companion, and their joy.  Duke was not their whole life, but he made their life whole.

Duke was diagnosed with Wobbler’s Disease.  Since they caught it early, Duke was expected to make a full and beneficial recovery.  As with all surgeries they knew there were risks. The operation was expensive, so they started to rearrange their lives and finances to prepare. Finally, after a couple months of preparing they decided it was time.

Bri and Duke

Last week young Duke went into surgery. Within less than a week Chris and Bri have watched their “son’s” health roller coaster up and down.  He was transferred to a hospital more capable of long term care and was put on a respirator.  These additional expenses were unexpected and started to increase.  Their insurance only covered a small portion of the costs and they are now left with an overwhelming amount of debt to pay off.

A fund was set up to help Chris and Bri through their work at Salon Ink.  Please visit the site to get more information and how you can help.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you Chris and Bri. The Love for Duke will go on forever.

Dreams for Change Donation Presentation

AQLife continues to work towards raising awareness and funds for our featured non-profits throughout the year.  Recently we were able to secure an additional monetary donation for Dreams For Change by using our corporate volunteer networks.  While we work hard to stay active and give back to our communities we may also use our professional networks to deepen awareness for these incredible nonprofits.

Dreams for Change is a San Diego nonprofit providing homeless families and individuals living in their cars the Safe Parking Program which gives them the safe environment needed to rest, access resources and work towards stabilization. Achieving Financial Independence, our financial literacy program provides the education needed to move forward with long term self-sufficiency by teaching the fundamentals of budgeting, credit use and repair while building savings and assets. Not stopping there, we are moving forward with finding ways to improve our process, using thoughtful discussion and collaboration to bring forth new programs, and utilizing new and innovative ways of thinking to bring about the changes needed to make our community a better place for everyone.

AQLife looks forward to continuing to partner with Dreams For Change as we all work towards making our communities a more cohesive city for all to enjoy.

Our Current Featured Non Profit is Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

We are supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and Max’s Ring of Fire in a 4.6 mile walk/run around Lake Miramar in San Diego, CA on September 25th, 2011 from 8:00am-11:00am.  These incredible non-profits were started by the parents of two children who lost their battle with childhood cancer. Please join us in raising awareness and funds by joining our AQLife Team for this walk/run by clicking on the link… http://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/75176 If you are unable to participate any donation would be greatly appreciated towards this incredible cause.

Thank you all for your continued dedication to both fitness and our communities.

Cyndi Kalbaugh

AQLife is proud to be actively working to support a wonderful non profit  Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.  We first blogged about Alex’s Lemonade Stand back in May and have been working with this non profit ever since.

Founder of AQLife, Vincent Alvarez first met Liz Gustavson Community Outreach Specialist with Alex’s Lemonade Stand through a colleague.  Once Vince had the opportunity to look more into the incredible work being done by this foundation and hearing about the efforts Alex herself made to make a difference in battling Childhood cancer he was motivated to see how AQLife may be able to continue raising awareness and funds for this worthy non profit.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has partnered with an additional non profit Max’s Ring of Fire to put on a special event in our community. A 4.6 mile run and kids 1 mile fun run around Miramar Lake (Scripps Ranch) on September 25th 2011. The proceeds will be split between these two non profits and benefit childhood cancer research.  The 4.6 miles around the lake represents the 46 children diagnosed with cancer every school day.

AQLife and Five Peak’s Fitness are excited to be putting together a team of runners and walkers in support of this event.  Please see our team page at http://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/75176 to become a part of our team of incredible runners, walkers, and volunteers that believe in making a difference in the lives of our children and supporting the community.

Thanks to all our Athletes For The Quality of Life and Five Peaks Fitness supporters and members. We appreciate all you do everyday to stay fit and give back to our communities. YOU ROCK!

Our two groups will be involved more throughout this event and we will be sure to share more details in future blogs.  To start everything off right we’d like to invite everyone out to our first training walk/run on Saturday July 30th at 8:00am.   Registration information will be available at our kick off and we will be having some light refreshments (Bagels and Banana’s) to start the training off right.  Once you are finished we would like to invite the entire family to stick around and join us in a relaxing potluck. If you are unable to join us for the morning training we would still like to have you out for our potluck from 10:30am – 12:30pm.  Who knows we may even break out into a fun game of volleyball, football or my family favorite Bocce(a little more low key after a workout.)

Please see our flyer (coming soon) for specific location and details about the kick off training and we look forward to seeing you all then for some summer fun.

Everyone learned a lot during the grocery tour last night at Henry’s Market Place.

The tour was to benefit Sharp HealthCare Foundation and donations were given via on-line.

I provided information on how to read labels, make healthy choices and how to implement these healthy foods into an every day meal plan.

To learn more visit Health Fitness Advisor.  Thanks to all who attended.

Valerie and Allison - PeakFindersTraining

It was great to see so many people out Saturday morning to kick off the training for the America’s Finest City (AFC) half marathon to be held August 21. 

The  PeakFinders Training Group, a group led by Chris Heslin from FivePeaksFitness providing athletic get togethers for our community and a partner of AQLife, were all eager to get started on their one hour walk jog workout. 

After a brief introduction from Chris the group headed out for their morning walk jog and then all gathered around to complete stretches. 

Joanna Lougran, PTA, Massage Therapist

Everyone was  treated to a massage by Joanna  Lougran, PTA, Massage Therapist.

The PeakFinders Training Group is gaining more popularity as the fun athletic group here in San Diego offering swimming, cycling and running get togethers.  Please visit their website at PeakFindersTraining.com for more information and the training schedule.

Our first Meeting with Alex's Lemonade

What happens when you get a group of passionate, dedicated and talented people together all working for the same cause?   Another step closer to knocking out childhood cancers and an awesome 5K.

Friday night marked the first of several meetings with Liz Gustavson from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to collaborate efforts for their very first 5K in San Diego.  The run will be modeled after their Lemon Run they have annually in Philadelphia.

We are excited to help make this event the best ever and most of all bring awareness and assistance to their cause.  Please read Alex’s Story and mark your calendar for the morning of October 15 for the 5K.  Stay tuned for more updates.