This week our community was devastated with the news of Kristene Johnson’s passing. For those fortunate enough to have known her, she was present at our very first class at StrongFit YXE in September of 2016, and was there on the last day at that location. Kristene was dedicated to her gym routine and despite having not attended a class since April, she still holds the all-time record attendance for all females: 1,331 hours of warm-up, stories, laughs, and fitness.

In recent years Kristene was able to share her struggles with mental health and her journey has been nothing short of amazing. She transformed forced smiles into beaming ones (as seen in pictures below). Her growth and impact has been felt by so many in our community as she was an amazingly selfless and considerate person, delivering surprise birthday treats at the gym and to people's homes, sharing with us all of the small town treasures that she came across in her travels (she knew the best bakeries and smoked meat shops in Saskatchewan). If you ever needed a truck for something she was the first person to offer up her keys. She just wanted to see the people around her doing well and if she could help in some way, she was going to.

Whether you’re a 6am OG or you’ve only ever known the 5:45am class, you may have been caught participating in a lesser known tradition. What started as unintentional twinsies between Kristene Johnson and Shauna Wilkinson has transformed into the weekly practice known as “blue pants Wednesday” - a practice that I would like to share and invite others to join in on going forward. My hope is that these blue pants Wednesdays will help us remember the wonderful person that Kristene was and to take a moment to appreciate the amazing people all around us.