DEER LAKE - In January, it will be exactly a year since two Blue Mountain graduates and former Marines returned home and started the Warrior Boot Camp in a two-car garage.
The camp, now located in the former FesslerUSA building along Route 61, showed just how much it has grown in that year as more than 40 people participated Saturday in a fitness competition.
Hosted by Warrior Boot Camp, the event was held to raise funds for The Green Beret Foundation and Silent Warrior Scholarship Fund.
"We wanted to be more involved and have a competition," Allie Fink, an instructor at the camp, said Saturday. "I think everyone really loves it because it's like a family here."
Fink said Warrior Boot Camp was started by brothers and Orwigsburg natives Chris and Mitch Stokes. Chris was a staff sergeant and Reconnaissance Marine for more than 10 years. They both lived in California before coming back home recently, Fink said.
"They wanted to come back home and help everyone live a healthy life," Fink said.
On Saturday, teams of two from as far away as Massachusetts and New Jersey competed in The GORUCK Challenge. According to the challenge's website at www.goruck.com, the competition takes place all over the country. It is inspired by the most elite training offered to Special Forces soldiers and led by the Green Berets to build teamwork.
The event at the Warrior Boot Camp was about eight to 10 hours long and 15 to 20 miles.
"It's about pushing yourself physically but it's far more a mental challenge," Brent Phillips, president and founder of The Silent Warrior Scholarship Fund, said Saturday.
He said he has done three challenges.
The Silent Warrior Scholarship Fund was set up by Reconnaissance Marines in memory of their fallen brothers. Scholarships are awarded to college-bound students based on direct family relationship to a Reconnaissance Marine or MARSOC Marine, academic achievement and financial need.
Phillips started the scholarship program after losing four fellow Marines.
"When he came home, he said he should do something for the high schools that each of those guys went to and decided to raise money through events like this," Deborah Phillips, Brent's mother and treasurer of the fund, said
She said five scholarships totaling $25,000 were awarded for the 2012-13 year. She is hoping to have five for 2013-14 totaling $50,000.
"I think the community really bonds with the military and they are always going a step further to support them," Deborah Phillips said. For more information for the scholarship fund, visit www.silentwarriorscholarshipfund.com. Also, visit the Warrior Boot Camp on Facebook.