Mark Sanders (The Fireman) and Gary Ridgley ( The Coach) have known each other since Mark was 15 years old and a member of the All-Star team that Gary coached. Mark’s career path took him to the Fire Department of Hammond and Gary’s to the Educational field in Math and Coaching.
Mark was crowned the “World’s Strongest Firefighter” at the Police and Fire World Games Twice and so in 1999 the two of them decided to have a bench press contest for charity. Both with lifts over 415 pounds, Mark won the contest with a lift of 437 pounds, even though he was on a down cycle in his workouts. The greatest thing about the two of them competing is that they each also brought 4 additional lifters to the competition for a great day and raised nearly $2000 that was given to a cancer victim to help defray costs of a hospital stay.
This was just another example of reason Fred, Gary and the others have decided to take on the task of starting an organization for charity.