GREENSBORO, N.C. — Last month Greensboro Police Sgt. Philip Dale Nix was laid to rest, and Friday would have been his 51st birthday. Now, community members are continuing to keep his memory alive in a special way.

Friday morning started off with a warmup for more than 60 men and a few police officers in the Triad, doing a hero workout in honor of Nix.

“Weeks ago, some of the men got together, talked with the police chief. And so we felt like this was just a really fitting way to honor him so that he is never forgotten,” Pat Tillman said.

Tillman is a peer leader of the group, called F3. It’s a small workout group of men for the invigoration of male community leadership. 

“F3 mission is aspiring to be better, to be better husbands, fathers, to be better coworkers, better neighbors. And Sgt. Nix's life completely illustrated that leadership, all that he did for the public in his service as a police officer, but more importantly, his work in the Family Justice Center to help those that are most vulnerable,” Tillman said.

This hero workout paid homage to Nix in different ways, like doing 150 burpees in honor of how many years he and his family have served their community in the fire and police departments.

“So we had that as a number. Then of course he would have been 51. So at the end of the workout up there at the plaza, we had 51, we call it American hammers, you know, crunches,” Tillman said.

And they also had men doing what's referred to as rucking, walking with heavy weights on their backs.

“We had what we call rucks that were weighted. We had sandbags. So each man was carrying a load and in effect, you know, sharing a burden,” Tillman said.

Tillman says he hopes this creates even more of an appreciation for what first responders do in our community on a daily basis.