Two former Rutland High School athletes are looking to give back and help the athletes of today.
Steven Storey and Keith Errington grew up in Kelowna and attended Rutland Secondary School where they were both athletes. Storey was a basketball player while Errington played both basketball and football. Both of them believe being athletes at RSS helped mould who they are today and now, they want to give back by hosting a golf tournament to raise money for the school’s athletic programs.
“We’re trying to raise money for Rutland athletics,” said Storey. “We were both graduates from Rutland Secondary and sports played a really big part in both of our lives and led us to be who we are as people.”
With their athletic background, Storey and Errington created and run Thrive Online Coaching, to help people achieve their health, wellness, and fitness goals. Errington, who’s a couple of years older than Storey, actually started Thrive with Storey being his first clinic.
After a while, Storey became a business partner and from there, it’s been growing ever since. Because it’s all online coaching and anyone can access it, the business took off during the pandemic and they’ve helped people all over the world since.
Following their success, the pair are now in a position to give back to Rutland Secondary’s athletics programs, which is something they’ve always wanted to do since graduating.
Over the years, they didn’t really know how they were going to start creating the fundraiser or when they would be able to. According to Storey, the idea to make the fundraiser a reality was kickstarted around a year ago, after the two of them saw a post online from one of the RSS football coaches saying they were looking to raise money for new jerseys for the team.
When they started to put the plan in motion, they went and talked to Rutland Secondary Principal Hugh Alexander as well as one of the school’s athletic directors. The message Storey and Errington received was, “there’s just no funding in Rutland for sports.”
“That’s a huge barrier to a lot of kids in Rutland getting to play sports,” said Storey. “Our goal with the fundraiser is to raise money for Rutland sports teams and to gather alumni and members of the Rutland community to create a yearly event where people can collaborate and get together and all give back to the community.”
Both Storey and Errington are trying to put together the golf tournament and continue to look for interest in the event before they can book it. Right now, their goal is to host the fundraiser in late August or early-mid September.
“A lot of golf courses want confirmation of how many people are playing,” said Storey. “The interest seems there but we want to let as many people know as we can.”
Storey and Errington have a Facebook group for people who are interested in the event to join.
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