Barbells for Boston returns to Huntsville with focus on FA awareness
The annual Huntsville event will raise money for Boston Gray and Friedreich’s Ataxia research while bringing runners, gym members and local families together on May 2.
Huntsville resident Tori Tinklepaugh and Alpha Omega Academy junior Boston Gray are preparing for the sixth annual Barbells for Boston, a May 2 fundraiser in Huntsville that supports Gray and raises awareness about Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare neuromuscular disease.
The event is set for 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include a 5K, a one-mile run and a CrossFit-style partner competition. According to Tinklepaugh, proceeds go to Gray’s account and to FARA, the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance, for research toward a cure.
About Boston Gray
Gray, a Huntsville student and lifelong Alpha Omega Academy attendee, said he has been at the school since kindergarten and plans to graduate there. He said sports have always been a big part of his life and his family’s life.
“I’m a junior at Alpha Omega and I’ve been there since kindergarten,” Gray said. “So I plan to graduate from there and all my family, most of my family was born and raised in Huntsville. So that’s cool. And I love sports.”
Gray said he was diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia in 2015, when he was 10. Tinklepaugh said the disease has affected many parts of his life and has brought years of physical strain, surgeries and daily adjustments.
According to Tinklepaugh, Gray has gone through two back surgeries, bracing and periods of severe pain. She said the condition can affect mobility, neuromuscular control, speech, hearing and, in some cases, the heart.
Even with those limits, Gray told listeners recently on Good Morning Huntsville he tries to keep his focus forward.
“F.A. is something that will knock you down, but you’ve always got to keep getting up and just look at the bright side of all of that,” he said.
Living with Friedreich’s Ataxia
Gray spoke plainly about what he has lost and what still drives him. He said he got his last at-bat in junior high, a moment he still remembers fondly.
“So like I said earlier, I got my last at bat in junior high and that was an awesome feeling,” Gray said. “But also it’s everything’s not about me and watching other people get to do the stuff they love. It’s awesome.”
That outlook has built the way many people around him talk about his example. Tinklepaugh said Gray’s attitude has made a deep impression on her during their work together.
She said she has trained Gray for roughly two to three years, with some breaks due to surgery. Over that time, she said, she has watched him attack hard workouts and stay committed to long-term goals that would test anyone.
“He pushes a sled. He does pull ups. He can pull a sled and he does walk with no assistance,” Tinklepaugh said. “He does a machine called reverse hyper. And if you have low back stuff comes in. But he slings weight on that.”
Tinklepaugh said her approach with Gray is the same basic approach she uses with other clients: start with the goal, then work through the steps needed to get there. In Gray’s case, she said, one goal is to walk again without assistance.
“It’s to walk again with no assistance,” she said. "As long as you’re up for it, we’re going to do it.”
How the partnership began
Tinklepaugh said her connection to the Gray family started years ago through sports and local ties.
She said she played high school and college softball with Gray’s aunt, Taylor Gray, now the volleyball coach at Midwestern State University. She also came to know other members of the Gray family through her gym and coaching work in Huntsville.
Over time, those relationships led to working directly with Boston. Tinklepaugh said she saw an athlete in him and wanted to help him keep that part of himself.
“Just kind of learning about Boston more and wanting, you know, just seeing someone that wants to be an athlete that touches with me,” she said. “Obviously I’m an athlete and I could, I would always want to be able to be known as an athlete. I was like, how can I give him a chance for that?”
She said the work started with showing Gray that people believed in him and cared about him. From there, it grew into training, habit-building and eventually the annual fundraiser.
“That’s where Barbells for Boston came about,” Tinklepaugh said.
Gray said the friendship has become one of the best parts of his week.
“The friendship is awesome,” he said. “ always look forward to coming to the gym twice a week because she’s always asking how I am, how my week’s going. It’s like you don’t go in there and feel like a bum.”
Tinklepaugh, laughing, replied that she is “always hyped up” and always has “something new to do.”
Event details for May 2
This year’s Barbells for Boston will begin with the running events at 8 a.m. at University Heights Baptist Church. Tinklepaugh said the route will follow the same course used for the Time to Read Storybook event.
The CrossFit competition will begin at 10 a.m. at The General Performance Training. In the interview, Tinklepaugh gave the gym address as 402 Highway 190 East. Event information provided with the program lists the event site as 402 Phelps Drive in Huntsville.
Tinklepaugh said the competition is a partner event designed to welcome people with different fitness backgrounds. The day also is expected to include food, children’s activities and a silent auction.
“It’s just a special day,” she said. “It’s pretty much all day and the energy and the atmosphere throughout it is just like so loving and welcoming and powerful in that way.”
She said all funds raised through signups, donations, silent auction items and merchandise will go to Gray’s account or to FARA.
Registration prices discussed during the program were $25 for the one-mile run and $35 for the 5K. Tinklepaugh said organizers prefer preregistration for the competition so they can plan heats, but runners can register up to the start time.
She said event information and registration links are available through The General Performance Training’s Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as Eventbrite.
A family effort
Gray said his parents have been central to his progress and outlook.
“My parents, they’re always there for me,” he said. “They help me through all of this and they’re both athletic people. And I love to just look up to them. They push me in all that I do.”
That support includes training goals at home. Gray said he rides a recumbent bike and plans to take part in the New York City Marathon in November.
“And so, not just school, but also I ride it, I ride a recumbent bike and I plan to do the New York City Marathon,” he said.
Tinklepaugh said Gray’s father also has taken on major physical challenges. She said he recently completed 62 miles at the Rocky Raccoon endurance race.
She said that kind of example matters for children who are watching how adults respond to hard things.
“I think him having a dad who went and ran 62 miles when his own kid was joking that he couldn’t do it, that only helps him and where he’s at,” Tinklepaugh said.
What the event means in Huntsville
Barbells for Boston has grown over six years into more than a gym fundraiser. It now sits at the crossing of local sports, family ties, faith and public awareness about a rare disease that many people in Huntsville may not know much about.
Tinklepaugh said the event came together quickly in its early years and still carries that same local momentum. She credited support from gym members, friends and Huntsville residents for keeping it going.
“It’s crazy that six years ago we started this and now where things are,” she said. “And that only comes from the support of the community of Huntsville, our members especially, and the connections and relationships we built because of them.”
Gray also made clear that one reason he wanted to speak publicly was to help others understand they can still have joy while living with a hard diagnosis.
His comments stayed short, but his message was direct. Friedreich’s Ataxia may knock someone down, he said, but that does not have to be the end of the story.
That message fits the shape of the event itself. The runs and workouts may draw people in, but the day is also about letting Huntsville families see Gray, hear his goals and learn what daily life with FA can look like.
What comes next
Tinklepaugh said she wants to keep doing more through the gym and through this event. She said the chance to tell Gray’s story to more people matters because awareness can lead to support, and support can lead to better care, stronger habits and more help for research.
“Thank you,” she said. “And the opportunity to spread more about Boston and what we do for this event, but also at the gym itself is just something we want to do more of.”
Gray ended his remarks with thanks to those who have supported him.
“Just thank you all and thank everybody for their support and their help and my family,” he said.
For Huntsville, the event offers a local way to back one family while also learning about a disease that reaches far past Walker County. For Gray, it is another step in a long fight that he has chosen to meet in public, with honesty and with hope.
Barbells for Boston is scheduled for Saturday, May 2, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Huntsville.