Greeley Wrestling Team Raises Money for Special Needs Kids Using Brawn

If you need some work done around the house that requires heavy lifting, who better to call than the Horace Greeley High School wrestling team?

For years, the Greeley wrestling team has visited P.S. 811X (formerly P10X) in the Bronx, a school for special needs students where their coach, Anthony Tortora, had taught for nine years. Each year they would bring gifts for the holidays, spend time with the kids and playfully wrestled with them.

Last spring, team member and current senior Lucas Saland had the idea to go a few steps further. He came up with the idea for Rent-A-Wrestler, where the local community would hire one or more wrestlers to take care of certain chores around people’s houses or properties. That could be spring cleaning around the yard, moving furniture or even babysitting.

All the money that is paid to the wrestlers for their work is being donated to P.S. 811X.

Saland said he created Rent-A-Wrestler after last year’s trip to the school saw the team get into a difficult situation. When delivering their Christmas gifts during their holiday visit their bus was robbed.

“We wanted to do a little bit more,” Saland said.

Last April, he executed plans, created a website www.rentawrestler.com and began taking requests from residents around the community for tasks that needed to be done. The 23-member team been charging $30 an hour for their efforts.

“We actually expected to get a couple of grand, maybe, after all this time, but it kind of blew up around town,” Saland said.

In the roughly six months since Rent-A-Wrestler launched, the team has raised about $11,500 – and counting. Last week they took a ride to P.S. 811X to present the check to the school.

Greeley wrestling coach Anthony Tortora said he is proud of the team, and Saland in particular, for creating something that helps children in need as well as members of their own community. He also didn’t know that Rent-A-Wrestler would be as popular as it has been in and around New Castle in a relatively short period of time.

“They just go in there and do the job, and they do a fantastic job,” Tortora said. “They have a great reputation.”

The money raised will go toward technology upgrades, such as the purchase of new iPads, and gym equipment. They’ll also set some money aside to pay for this year’s Christmas gifts for the youngsters.

Saland’s parents, Leslie and Jeremy, marveled at how their son took the lead in organizing Rent-A-Wrestler and how popular the service has been around town. They’ve advertised on local social media sites and have had a great response, particularly during the summer when they had more free time.

“I’m quite shocked about how this took off,” Saland’s mother Leslie said. “It’s making me emotional because on his own he created this whole thing. He did the lion’s share of the work.”

“He’s really put in literally blood, sweat and tears into this,” his father, Jeremy, added.

Saland, who has done much of the scheduling and coordination, said he will continue helping the community and the schoolkids throughout this year and hopes to hand off the effort to younger team members after he graduates next year.

To learn more about Rent-A-Wrestler or to hire team members for a specific job, visit www.rentawrestler.com.