013020…R FAITH 2…Struthers…01-30-20…Paul Dunleavy of Struthers, fitness trainer and religious leader, works out at IFC (Iron Fit Crew) Functional Fitness Center in Struthers…by R. Michael Semple

STRUTHERS — Thanks to former middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik, people all over the world learned a decade ago that Paul “Dunner” Dunleavy practices an unorthodox type of fitness training.

His process includes tossing huge tires and lifting concrete “stones” at his former Youngstown gym called Ironman Warehouse.

Pavlik was the middleweight champion of the world in 2008 when sports writers took notice of the “old school” training Pavlik got from Dunleavy at Ironman Warehouse when it was on Center Street in Youngstown.

“Every orifice is going to hurt, every ligament and tendon is going to get worked,” Dunleavy explained at the time of how his training differed from what Pavlik got elsewhere.

“I couldn’t walk straight for like three days,” the champ said after trying the workouts.

Pavlik is one of many elite athletes who worked out with Dunleavy, now 52, of Struthers, who started training college football players and others outdoors at Mill Creek Park in 1992. His sports career was with the University Mount Union , where he played baseball. He has also run 35 marathons, boxed in the Golden Gloves and competed in Pittsburgh’s Strongest Man competition in 2006.

BEGINNINGS

His beginnings in unorthdox training began as a kid growing up in Struthers, “climbing everything, obstacle courses, lifting stones, tipping trees, running and jumping.” He got additional ideas in the Marine Corps.

In addition to his connection to Kelly Pavlik, Dunleavy is also known for running Youngstown’s Peace Race with a log on his shoulders.

“I run races around town carrying a log on my shoulders,” he said during a recent interview. “I tell people about Jesus. I pray for the city. Sometimes I just run around downtown and pray for the city with the log.”

Dunleavy says Jesus is the No. 1 priority in his life, followed by being married to his wife, Kelly, since 2010 and being a father to their son, Magnus. After that, he said on a web page connected to the gym, comes “training and training others how to take care of their temples.”

After several years, Dunleavy and his business partners closed the Center Street Ironman Warehouse gym. In 2010, Dunleavy opened a new Ironman Warehouse on East Federal Street in Youngstown near the YMCA. He operated it full time until 2018 and closed it last month.

He moved the tires and other equipment he and former owners Mitch Zupko and Dr. Mark Rosetta acquired to IFC Functional Fitness Center, 629 W. Spring St. in Struthers that is run by Dylan Schmidt, who worked out at Dunleavy’s previous gym.

Dunleavy will continue to use the Ironman Warehouse name as part of his personal fitness training, but he also now works for the Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities. He said he got out of the gym business for financial and family reasons.

BLESSED

But he continues to operate the charity Blessed 2 Bless, which he started in 1997, thanks to inspiration from his father, Dan Dunleavy.

One day in 1995, “Dunner” and his family asked his father what he wanted for Christmas, and his father said, “I’m sick of this Christmas. Jesus would be flipping tables and tearing down Christmas trees. We’ve got the wrong reason for it. If we are celebrating His birth, we should be celebrating Him, and we should be out helping other people, serving the orphans and widows,’” Dunleavy recalls.

“We all looked at each other and we were like, “That’s right.’ We always stressed out about buying things for each other and we knew a family in Struthers whose house had burned down, so we all chipped in all the money we were going to spend on each other and bought them stuff.

“The next year we got two families. We said we’re not buying things for each other anymore. None of us need anything. The third year, people found out we were doing it, and people started giving me money, and then it became a significant amount of money, so I became an official charity.”

Blessed 2 Bless has operated under a couple of umbrella organizations, such as National Heritage Foundation and United Charitable Programs that receive the donations from Dunleavy and return the money when he is ready to buy the gifts.

The mission of the charity is to “show Jesus Christ to the world through presents to the needy and poor, primarily just before Christmas,” he said.

Here’s how he identifies the people in need: “I have people who give me names — from policemen to pastors to coaches and social workers, people will call me.”

About 50 volunteers help out each year to shop for presents, deliver them and carry out the many other tasks involved. Last year, Blessed 2 Bless helped 62 families, mostly in Mahoning County, but also in a few areas outside of Mahoning County.

DELIVERY

McDonald resident Jeff Politano says he’s been among the Blessed 2 Bless volunteers for 10 years. It began after he started organizing a 5-K run in McDonald giving the proceeds to charity. Run organizers decided to give the money to Blessed 2 Bless because the work it did resonated for him and others affiliated with the 5K, especially the delivery of the gifts to the less fortunate.

“What it shows is how fortunate we are and how close we live to poverty, which is only a few miles away from all of us,” he said.

During the distribution of the gifts, the volunteers ask the recipients if there is anything for which they need prayer.

“He is the real deal,” Politano said of Dunleavy. “He has a strong faith in God.”

Part of that faith is that the donations will arrive in time for the organization to meet the need each year.

“Every year, the money comes in and the gifts are delivered,” he said. “Every year, it finds a way to work out.”

BAD CONDITIONS

When asked to describe a memorable trip to deliver presents, Dunleavy said: “I remember going to a house on Lauderdale (Avenue) on the North Side” of Youngstown, he said. “Before we went in the house, I said, ‘This is going to be a really bad house.’

“They were using the stove to heat the house because their electricity was cut off. They came outside in their bare feet. It was snowing. They couldn’t believe someone was bringing them presents and coats,” he said of the family.

“They were screaming. There was nine kids in the house and the woman was pregnant. We got all of the stuff in the house, and they were real thankful. They cried.

“When we got out to the car, the men — it was all men — they began to weep.”