Friday Five: Fitness and Volunteering

From coaching to bike mechanic to feeding the homeless, Louisville has a wide range of ways to volunteer in areas that are related to fitness in some way.

Here are this week's Friday Five:

1. Burrito Riders - From their facebook page, "We roll burritos in our homes, and deliver them to the homeless and the hungry, by bicycle, the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month." They are always looking for more people to make burritos and riders. You can also read a little more about them here.

2. runPossible - Sweaty Sheep initiative that meets every Wednesday morning with Wayside to connect with the homeless through running and walking

3. Volunteer at a Bike shop - Trikes for Tikes in Crestwood meets on Thursday nights to repair bikes to give to the needy. You can donate bikes, bike parts, and helmets. Falls City Community Bikeworks is another great place. From their website,  "FCCBikeWorks will serve a two-part mission: providing the space, tools and expertise to any community member who wishes to learn and practice bicycle maintenance; and channeling the donation of refurbished bicycles (and related equipment and skills) to Louisvillians who rely on bike transportation, but cannot afford to purchase roadworthy bicycles. The overriding goal is to make bicycling more affordable and widespread."


4. Be a coach or a mentor - YMCA, GOTR (Girls on the Run), First Tee of Louisville

5.Volunteer with road races such as the Ironman, the upcoming Hike, Bike and Paddle, Mighty Titans. Other road races may give you a free or discounted entry to their race.

There are still lots of other options out there such as 502 energy exchange or volunteering in a local club or maybe teaching a community fitness class.

My family and I currently help out with Burrito Riders and Trikes for Tikes, but look forward to trying some of the others out soon! Volunteering is just like fitness - you got to make the time to do it if you want to do it.

Do you know of other opportunities? I would love to share them too!