The legs of 50 participants and 5 trainers turned the bike spokes into a blur at the Gleason Family YMCA during the 4th Annual Spin-A-Thon fundraiser.

Throughout the morning and afternoon on Saturday, March 23, the sweat poured during five one-hour spinning sessions. The riders pushed through their workouts, motivated to support children and families of Wareham.

Proceeds from the Spin-A-Thon support the Y’s 2019 Annual Campaign, which ensures that all children, families, and adults have equal access to Y programs and services.

“We look to raise funds for the community of people that can’t afford the membership fees, sports programs, and swimming lessons,” said Spin-A-Thon co-organizer and YMCA Senior Program Director Lu Brito. “We use the raised money to also support programs like LIVESTRONG for cancer survivors.”

Participants paid a $10 registration fee and could reserve their bikes for a chosen number of hours. First-time participant Laura Zell said she wanted to “support YMCA and all their great programs.”

“I think the YMCA is a great community resource and I wanted to support that,” said Zell. “I like the fundraising, I like the YMCA, I like their programs and instructors.”

Over the years, the number of participants has increased, said Brito. Only 20 people registered for the first Spin-A-Thon in 2016. Brito believes the event will continue to grow, and already has plans to make the sessions more exciting.

“Instead of having each trainer teaching their own hour segment, it would be a good idea to have a big two-hour segment with all the instructors and all the participants at the same time,” said Brito. “We will host it in a basketball court, will have a DJ, we will make it a party.”

Brito added that even thought Spin-A-Thon is a one-day event, anyone who wants to donate, can do so before March 31 by visiting Gleason Family YMCA website or Facebook page.