For the next week, Fitness Unlimited in Washington is hosting its inaugural Seven Days of Giving.

A minimum donation of $5 to either the American Red Cross, Eagles Wings, Young Life, Relay for Life, Ruth’s House, Friends of God Ministry or Martin Pitt Partnership for Children through Fitness Unlimited will give donors a chance to see motivational speaker Donna Krech on May 19.

Donations are taken at either the Washington or Williamston Fitness Unlimited locations.

“We were looking for a way to basically give back to the community,” said Austin Thomas, owner of Fitness Unlimited. “Like a lot of local businesses we get visited a lot from people asking to give money to them.”

One of the things that Thomas and his wife Amy struggled with as business owners was trying to decide which nonprofit to choose.

“We started it by doing a social media post trying to narrow it down to seven,” Thomas said. “We wanted them (the nonprofits) to be local to either Beaufort or Martin Counties. We let the majority rule on that.”

All 100 percent of the proceeds go to the seven charities. Fitness Unlimited will donate as well.

Monday night, Fitness Unlimited will match one charity up to  $5,000. However, it won’t be the highest grossing nonprofit during the Seven Days of Giving. The nonprofit that brings the most people to Krech’s lecture will receive the match in donation by Fitness Unlimited.

The nonprofit that Fitness Unlimited matches next Monday, will be the company’s partner charity for the next year.

“When we do fundraisers they (the nonprofit) are going to be the main one for the next year,” Thomas said. “They will be the main focus and we will do a lot of different fundraisers.”

This is not Fitness Unlimited’s first jump into charitable donations. They have often helped Eagles Wings with either monetary donations or canned-food drives.

“We just finished a canned-food drive and a tornado-victim drive,” Thomas said. “Our Pink Gloves department has done some things for Relay for Life.”

Pink Gloves is a female-only boxing program offered through Fitness Unlimited.

If donors can’t make it to Fitness Unlimited between today and next Monday but want to see Krech speak at 6 p.m. on May 19, they can make a $5 donation at the door.

For more information about Seven Days of Giving visit Fitness Unlimited’s Facebook page. To learn more about Donna Krech visit www.donnakrech.com