Customers of Oletowne Jewelers in York, Pa., are competing to lose weight—and win a diamond.

The family-owned jewelry store, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last year, is hosting the competition for a third time.

“I came up with the idea while out running one day,” said store owner Jamie Bovender, who bought the business from his father, Jim Bovender, in December. “I needed motivation to lose weight, and I figured other people needed motivation to lose weight, too.” 

For the “Lose Your Weight in Diamonds” campaign, participants can register at the store until June 28. The competition will run through the beginning of August, at which point the person who loses the largest percentage of body weight will be declared the winner. The prize is a diamond, the size of which will be determined by the weight loss. If the winner loses 50 pounds, the award will be a 0.5 ct. diamond. If the winner loses 25 pounds, the award will be a 0.25 ct. diamond.

Both past winners have lost 50 pounds each and won a 0.5 ct. diamond.

Bovender is trying hard this year to keep the competition healthy. “We realized some people were doing extreme weight loss techniques for the competition, losing a lot of weight in an unhealthy way, then putting it right back on. So this year we are partnering with a Jewish community center here in York to try to encourage people to lose the weight in a healthy way. We’re doing the sign-ups here in the store, and all the weight-loss recording will be done at the community center.”

There’s no cost to the program, though the community center is offering special reduced-cost memberships to participants.

JCK