Turning friendly competition into real-world impact

By Emma Peterson. 

LRWA’s Charity Team Challenge encourages professionals to stay active and build team spirit while raising funds to help end youth homelessness. 

In a new episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth chatted with Sarah Spink, CEO of the Liquid Roofing and Waterproofing Association (LRWA), about the 2026 Charity Team Challenge. This challenge brings the waterproofing and roofing communities together in support of the LandAid charity.  

Sarah kicked off the podcast by sharing some background on the event, explaining,“At LRWA, we feel a certain responsibility to give back and do good. The logic is, if we've got a body of people who are within a sector, why not come together, even though we're all competitors, and raise money for charity for good causes.” 

The Charity Team Challenge specifically began in 2020. Sarah recalled, “We started the Charity Team Challenge in 2020, and it was kind of borne out of the fact that we were having to cancel a lot of our other charity events, like the annual Dragon Boat Regatta. Our team wanted to find something that people can participate in all over – and that’s where the Team Challenge came from.” 

Through the Team Challenge, LRWA challenges roofers and waterproofers to gather a team of ten. Then, during a three-week period, that team clocks as many kilometers as they can by running, walking, swimming or cycling to win points. Throughout the course of the three-week period, LRWA hosts additional challenges to get more points. These range from posting about their participation on LinkedIn to raising more money for charity! 

The goal was to create a challenge that met people where they were. As Sarah put it, “The theory was that anybody can do this; anybody can take part. It's more about doing something meaningful together as a group and getting that team spirit going than being the most athletic.” 

At the end of the challenge, LRWA sends out gold, silver and bronze medals to the highest scoring teams, and all the money raised is sent to the event’s charity partner – LandAid. Sarah shared a bit about this charity, “LandAid is focused on ending youth homelessness. And it’s a really great partnership for our members; we’re the ones building structures and homes and roofs – and this organisation is working to make sure that young ones have access to those structures and spaces.” 

Listen to the whole episode or Watch the recording to learn more about LRWA and their charitable work.