Adin Brenner was in kindergarten when he enrolled in the Bowen Island Gymnastics Club.
A decade later, he’s a BC champion in both artistic and trampoline gymnastics and, this December, he’ll be part of Team Canada at the World Age Group Championships in Denmark.
To help him soar, his family has started a crowdfunding campaign to help cover some of the $20,000 it will take to compete there.
“One day I hope to be top in the world,” he says in his campaign’s video. “I do it because it’s fun but I’m determined to get somewhere despite my diabetes.”
Diabetic since the age of two, Adin is accustomed to having to be focused and disciplined to overcome challenges. Ten days into his campaign, he’d already raised $7,000.
Adin and his family now live on Gabriola Island where they have a large trampoline in the backyard so Adin can fit in extra practices without having to take a ferry. On school days — he’s about to enter Grade 9 at Nanaimo & District Secondary School — he trains four hours every day as he maintains a B average.
“With each year his passion and accomplishments in the sport grow, as do his financial requirements,” writes his mother Mara in an email. “Adin is on track to be the best in the world but this is a youthful sport and this is the first year that he needs to travel a lot to make that dream a reality.”
In the past Adin has done local fundraisers and has been supported by the Gabriola Lions as well as Animas Canada the company that supplies his insulin pump. But after that company was bought by an American company, that funding was reduced.
The campaign is to help pay for year-round training, all of the meet registration fees, coaching fees, hotel, travel- including international flights, and required training camps, plus a team BC and a Team Canada uniform.
You can find out more about his campaign here.