WINNECONNE, Wisc., (SPECTRUM NEWS) -- Nate Carroll of Winneconne is trying to raise a lot of money for families of first responders. In the process, he hopes to break a thirty year old world record for push-ups. Push-ups are sort of his thing.

In 2019 he completed an incredible one million push-ups. He thinks he got hooked on them while serving in the Marine Corp Reserves.

“I think that’s where the love for push-ups came because during boot camp I certainly did a lot of push-ups,” says Carroll.

His goal is to hit 1.5 million push-ups in the next year. That averages out to over 4,000 a day. Nate also works full-time and is the father to three kids.

“I wake up at 4 o’clock and I’ll do sets of push-ups. At work I’m able to do sets of push-ups so I’ll do them throughout the day and over my lunch period. In the evening, the numbers I have to hit, I’ll weave those into doing dishes, cooking supper, going to the store and just kind of work around that,” says Carroll.

The world record would be nice but he’s really doing this to raise money for families of fallen emergency responders. Nate teamed up with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. 

One of their goals is to keep families of fallen first responders in their homes. Last year, their Fallen First Responder Home Program paid off the mortgage of Appleton Firefighter Mitch Lundgaard. Lundgaard was killed in the line of duty, leaving behind his wife and three sons.

“Ninety three cents out of every dollar goes to help families in our programs. It’s something we’re very proud of that you can feel comfortable giving money to us because we make sure it goes as far as it possibly can and it just means a lot more families being helped. It means a lot more families can stay in their homes,” says Trevor Tamsen of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Through his GoFundMe page Carroll hopes to rase one dollar for each push-up. A lofty $1.5 million goal. It’s hard to imagine finding the time and energy to accomplish this goal.

“When I’m struggling with it physically or mentally, I think about the families that this foundation supports and it helps give me the mental strength and the ability to endure whatever challenges I’m going through,” says Carrroll.

Somehow, he puts the daunting task of 4,000 push-ups a day in a new light.

“I’m sitting in my living room doing pushups and that’s my biggest problem. The families of the heroes left behind, the kids, they have real problems. They have real struggles. They have real challenges that they’re going to face the rest of their lives,” says Carroll.