Raised in the church by her mother, Aubrey Powell found herself bargaining with God at age 29 just to help her get high. But God, she says today, had other plans.
She was 14 when her father, a longtime addict, offered her a hit of meth. By 15, she was injecting heroin, a habit that consumed the next 15 years of her life as she spiraled into addiction and incarceration.
Then, a year before her 30th birthday, she met a man named Jon in rehab. They fell in love and planned to move in together. After they were discharged, he stayed sober, but she immediately relapsed.
“I was determined not to drag him down with me,” Powell says. “I vowed to use one last time and then quit for good.”
But that final high ended in a car crash, and she was escorted by federal marshals to a Texas prison to serve a year for a DWI.
“It was Dec. 1, 2016. I’ll never forget that date; it became my sobriety date,” she says. “It was the most mortifying day of my life, and a day I thank God for.”
It was that fateful day that led Powell to where she is now: on the verge of opening a CrossFit gym with a built-in counseling center, where she’ll help others rebuild their lives. A dream that started in prison and was refined in her Berthoud backyard is coming true.
Aubrey Powell (front center) at a free backyard community workout in Berthoud.
Praying for a purpose
Texas prison was different from a county jail. A veritable 120-degree tin box, the constant screaming and fighting that took place within its walls left Powell cowering in her bunk.
With nothing but a Bible, she began to pray.
“I felt this calling to go out into the prison, lead a Bible study and try to bring people together,” she says.
The next day, Powell was transferred to a new unit with a yard where she began designing workouts. Before long, others joined in, and soon she was leading daily workouts followed by prayer circles.
“I was having the best year of my life in prison,” she says. “I’d found my purpose, and it had set me free.”
Starting over
When Powell was released, she connected with a CrossFit gym owner in Texas who traded a membership for help around the gym. Within weeks, she was studying to become a certified instructor.
As she coached, people began opening up to her.
“I realized I was meant to be a counselor,” she says. “That’s basically what I was already doing.”
Powell earned her bachelor’s degree in 2021 while pregnant with her and Jon’s first child. Then her brother died of an overdose, and her family moved to Colorado for a fresh start. She was accepted into Colorado State University’s master’s program in counseling with an emphasis on substance abuse.
It was then that she began offering free workouts in local parks, often with her young son—and later two sons—in tow.
“In Colorado, we struggled to find a CrossFit gym where we could bring our kids,” Powell says. “I wanted to make it accessible to anyone.”
Eventually, her workouts moved to her backyard. She began inviting everyone she met to join, often approaching strangers at the park or the rec center.
One of those people was Julia Sarnacki, a Berthoud woman with a similar past.
“Aubrey’s bootcamps gave me strength and hope in the most uncertain times,” Sarnacki says. “Her hunger for helping others, no matter where they are in their journey, drew me to her.”
Powell’s vision of an inclusive fitness community, where kids played nearby and neighbors encouraged each other, began to take shape with Jon’s support.
“We wanted to build a place where we support each other, hold each other accountable and do life together,” Powell says. “There’s this collective suffering in a hard workout, and then you finish together. It’s beautiful.”
Building a dream
Powell’s backyard bootcamps continued to grow, even as the space grew tighter. Meanwhile, other plans were falling
into place.
This past April, after months spent reviewing Powell’s nine pages of criminal records, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies approved her as a candidate for licensure. She’s now completing the 2,000 hours of supervised counseling required for full state licensure as a therapist.
Her dream was to create a counseling center unlike any other, one that offered childcare, 15-minute CrossFit workouts before counseling sessions and a place where the whole community could belong. But she still faced some major obstacles: no building, no funding and no credit history.
Just as things were beginning to look bleak, friends offered to help. Sarnacki was one of them, donating a portion of the money she earned by selling her home.
“She supported me in my new chapter,” Sarnacki says, “and I wanted to help her start this one.”
With a renewed sense of hope, Jon sold his construction tools and Powell sold her car. They were able to secure a building.
As of press time, Kingdom CrossFit was set to open the first week of September in downtown Berthoud.
Powell plans to offer more than just workouts and counseling. She’ll host 5Ks to fund scholarships for gym memberships through her newly created nonprofit, Set Free Gymistry, as well as organize social events and continue the tradition of the backyard gathering.
“We’ll always be a space where the community can come together,” she says. “We’re normalizing the backyard—the power of a community doing life together.”
