‘Lift For Jonny’ Will Honor Late Nauset Fit Co-Owner

ORLEANS – Jonny Rogers lived for the gym, and not just because he owned one. According to his wife Kellie, it was a place that offered him an opportunity to help others.

“He always used to say that his job is more like a therapist than a personal trainer,” she said. “You know, you work out with people and you just talk.”

Jonny’s interest in and commitment to helping people was such that prior to his death in December of last year, he and Kellie had talked about starting a foundation to help underprivileged children on the Cape find and develop different extracurricular interests. Now a new nonprofit foundation that’s been created in his memory will help make that plan a reality.

Proceeds from this weekend’s first annual Lift For Jonny event will go to support the Larger Than Life Foundation, which Kellie is overseeing to help children in need pay for extracurricular activities ranging from sports to music and art lessons and everything in between. The event is scheduled for June 22 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. behind Nauset Fitness Co. at 21 Old Colony Way, of which Jonny was co-owner.

“We had been talking about helping kids who were in need and struggling, maybe coming from a poor family environment,” Kellie said. “I wanted to kind of honor that, because we had planned that.”

The June 22 event will feature professional arm wrestling, strongman events and truck pull events, one for adults and one for children. There will also be live music from the Mark’s Music Band Program, Northern Lights, Super Soulshine and Just Like That, as well as a monster truck and food from 2 Jakes BBQ.

A native of Berlin, Mass., Jonny died Dec. 31 at the age of 37. In addition to Kellie, he leaves behind four children: Jack, 13, twins Henry and Charles, 2, and Benjamin, four months; as well as many extended family members.

A 2005 graduate of Tahanto Regional High School, Jonny began spending more time in his 20s on the Cape, where he had family in Orleans. He was a resident of Brewster.

In 2015, he opened Bodystrong Fitness in Orleans, which he rebranded as Nauset Fit Co. in 2020 alongside his partner, Phil Cillis. According to his obituary, Jonny often referred to the gym as “his baby,” and he often could be found there working out as early as 6 a.m.

“He grew an empire, a community space where he helped people achieve not just physical goals but life goals,” his obituary read.

“He loved the gym,” Kellie said. “He put everything into it.”

The foundation’s name is a tribute to Jonny’s larger than life persona, Kellie said, and Saturday’s event was designed to honor his many passions.

“The strongman events and truck pulls and armwrestling, those were some of the passions that he did. He did a strongman competition a year ago,” she said. “And that kind of segues into friends that we have that do arm wrestling.”

And while Jonny’s loss is still felt by those who knew him, Kellie said Lift for Jonny is an opportunity for the community that loved him to celebrate her late husband. The event will be held just days before what would have been Jonny’s 38th birthday.

“The funeral home said nearly 700 people showed up [to his funeral service], which was amazing,” she said. “But it was also a service. It was kind of sad. So we wanted to use his birthday as kind of an opportunity to get the community together and say thank you and honor him and start something for the future.”

For tickets and more information about Saturday’s event, visit www.eventbrite.com and search “Lift for Jonny.”

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com