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•🧑✈️ Who: Tommy Lazzaro, a former CMU football player and Special Forces soldier, and his fiancée, Kaley Lazzaro
•📌 What: A fundraiser workout to support Kaley and their unborn child after Tommy’s tragic passing
•📅 When: Saturday, March 15, at 11:30 AM
•📍 Where: CrossFit Red Empire, 4677 East Highway 20, Bluewater Bay, FL
•❓ Why: Tommy was killed by a stray bullet while helping his brother-in-law, and the community is coming together to support his family in this difficult time.
•🔗 Participate: Link here
•🔗 Donate: Link Here
Tommy Lazzaro died just a day after finding out his fiancée, Kaley (née Lynch) Lazzaro, was pregnant with their first child. He died on her birthday before they were able to tell their parents the good news.
The 27-year-old made the most of his life – playing football at Central Michigan University and enlisted in the Army, where he served as a special forces sergeant.
At Central Michigan, he won the Kurt Dobronski Award, which is given to the Chippewa player who “demonstrates great effort, intensity and appreciation for the Chippewa football program.”
“When we took over the program, Tommy was truly our leader in so many ways,” Former Chips Head Coach Jim McElwain said. “CMU Football was blessed to have him and will always remember him for all he did for many of us. He will be missed by all of the Chippewas.”
He was on the way to help his brother-in-law and fellow special forces soldier get his truck out of a jam on the range when a wayward bullet from a hunter’s rife hit him, burst an artery, and killed him.
His friends and family – including the team at CrossFit Red Empire in Bluewater Bay – have rallied around his fiancée, Kaley (née Lynch) Lazzaro, and their unborn child – and will have a workout fundraiser for the pair Saturday, March 15.
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Drew Sanders, owner of Crossfit Red Empire and a former 7th Special Forces Group member, met Kaley and knew he needed to do something to help the family as they worked through their loss.
“I mean if you reached out to the Hallmark Channel and asked them to write the saddest movie they could write. I still don’t think they would get it,” Sanders said.
Although he runs a CrossFit gym, he says the workout is focused on the fundraiser portion – and is not at a regular intensity you might expect from a routine workout at CrossFit Red Empire.
The workout will be a one-mile loop run two times, with two stops for pushups and air squats. “You can run it, you can walk it, you can push a stroller. Kids are allowed to come. So anybody that wants to come, if you don’t even want to complete the two loops, you don’t have to. It’s less about the actual workout of it, and it’s more about getting the community to rally around Kaley and just show her that there’s people that are here and they care about her and want to support her through a really difficult time.”
If you want to join the workout, click here for more information.
DONATIONS GO HERE. CrossFit Red Empire decided to work with The Special Forces Association and The 7th Special Forces Group through this link to make sure they maximize how much money Kaley and the Lazzaro’s unborn child receive from the fundraiser.
