Park City boxing and martial arts gym Rise Boxing started its charitable fight night, Mountain Mettle, four years ago.  The event first served as a fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease. Rise Boxing offers programming for boxers with Parkinson’s, as it has been shown to improve motor skills am ong those with the disease.  The gym raised about $15,000 at last year’s Mountain Mettle, half of which went toward developing an app for Parkinson’s boxers to plan their workouts outside of the gym. Rise Boxing decided to use the remaining money to help fund its youth boxers who need financial assistance to continue in the sport.  Since the app is cheap to maintain, Rise and founder Maryguenn “MG” Vellinga decided that this year’s Mountain Mettle, held on Saturday night in the gym’s parking lot, the fundraiser would entirely support youth boxers.  Past Mountain Mettles have been held at The Corner Store Bar Grill by Park City Mountain, but Rise was unable to secure the location as the store recently underwent an ownership change. The event was also moved from its usual second weekend of September date because Black Rock Mountain Resort is hosting a fight night on Sept. 12 in which Rise boxers will also be competing in. With the venue and date changes and poor weather on Saturday, Rise raised a little less this year, just over $10,000. Despite that, Vellinga said this may have been the best Mountain Mettle yet.  Rise Boxing raised just over $10,000 for its youth boxers in need this year. They had five fighters compete on Saturday, with three walking away with wins. Credit: Photo courtesy of Jesse Sanchez/RISE Boxing “The event was so good,” Vellinga said. “I think we had the best show that we’ve had in terms of fan and fighter experience. And it was so fun to be at the gym.” Vellinga said the smaller crowds were as boisterous as ever. She thinks having more space to work with than they previously had at the Corner Store played a big role in that: Fighters were able to warm up while also watching and cheering on their friends and teammates. Plus, more of the boxers with Parkinson’s were able to get good seats.   “I love having it on the mountain,” Vellinga said. “I think that it’s so cool to get to have people at such an iconic spot in Park City. But the venue is very small for the amount of people that we have and for fighters specifically. They have to warm up in an area where they can’t see the ring, which complicates the flow. … We just got a lot of feedback that the location was better set up and that people were able to experience it more broadly because of that.” Having three of five Rise boxers walk away with victories certainly didn’t hurt the mood of the Park City crowd on Saturday. One of the victors was Jesús Gradle, who during training last week guaranteed he would win what would be his first Mountain Mettle fight.  Rise Boxing founder and coach Maryguenn “MG” Vellinga, right, believes hosting at the gym allowed for ample space and a vibrant atmosphere on Saturday. Credit: Photo courtesy of Jesse Sanchez/RISE Boxing Vellinga won’t let any fundraising total get her down or distracted from her and the gym’s mission: creating access to boxing, and community events to support that. She also thinks it’s important to give her boxers opportunities to fight at their home gym.  Vellinga is set on having Mountain Mettle return to the second weekend of September moving forward, when more families are back in town for school and can attend the event, she said. She isn’t sure on a preferred location yet, but would like it to be somewhere where the ring is covered in case of rain. For further information about Rise Boxing and Mountain Mettle, see the gym’s website: riseboxing.com. The post Park City gym raises over $10,000 for youth boxers  appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less