The Station – Passing the Torch

How it all started

Just over a year ago, F3 Greer was just a thought. YHC had only posted to his first workout two months before, when along came Bartman with the question: “We need to launch F3 in Greer. Can you and Erector take the lead and get that going?” My initial thought; “Nope.” Then, it changed to “OK, we’ll just find an AO and these other more experienced guys will do the rest”.

So we were off. A couple of early morning recon sessions and we had landed on either Greer City Park or Century Park. Greer City park had good lighting, tons of spots for pain, but posted “park hours” that were much later when we would be there. However, Century Park was dark and had “No Trespassing” signs posted. Better to ask forgiveness than permission so, Greer City Park it was.

A month later it was decided we would launch and we were going to do it COLA style. We created a F3 Greer email address and started gathering names and sending out introduction emails. We created a twitter account and started posting teaser tweets and collecting followers. The last thing we needed were some Site Qs. After several emails, lunch meetings, planning sessions, and encouragement from Swamp Rabbit PAX; F3 Greer was about to launch. Since we all lived in Greer, it only seemed logical that Erector, Johnny 5 and YHC would take up Site Q duties.

We launched on 8.9.14 with huge success. PAX came out from all over Swamp Rabbit. We had 48 total with 7 FNGs. The next week we had 6 FNGs. Within two weeks we already added weekday workouts. Our first Q from a Greer FNG was in September and it was all downhill from there. Now, there is a big core group that post and Q on the regular.

Passing the Torch

That seemed long winded, but when you’ve invested so much time and energy into something, it’s kind of a big deal to let it go. So, it’s time to pass the torch. Two of the Greer “Redwood Originals”, Blue Hawaii and Grr have stepped up to lead #TheStation. They will be taking over as Site Qs for the next segment of The Station. Is this permanent? Or course not. Flay, with all his wisdom, has suggested the idea of rotating Site Qs, so this seems like a great opportunity to try it out. Grr and Blue Hawaii will lead until it’s time to pass the torch on to new men. This way the station will always be pushing forward and guys won’t get burned out.

What does this mean? Grrr and Blue will be in charge of making sure the Q calendar for The Station is filled, they will make sure that guys know how to run a workout correctly, and they will spread the word about F3 Greer in the community (like they’ve already been doing). Grrr and Blue are proven leaders in the community, true family men, and they are passionate about Greer. I’m excited to see how F3 Greer will grow under their leadership. #TClaps gentlemen.

Aye.