EDMONTON -- An Edmonton police officer did nearly 1,000 burpees in an hour to raise money and awareness for autism on Saturday.

Const. Stephen Schaefer's oldest son, Jason, was diagnosed with autism when he was three years old.

"Autism Edmonton was an organization that was a support for us and we were able to get a lot of resources from them," Schaefer recalled.

So on Saturday, the dad got down—and up—and down—and up—and down—and up 949 times to give back to the organization.

The show of athleticism was both a fundraiser for Autism Edmonton and a Guinness World Record attempt for most chest-to-ground push-up burpees in one hour.

To count 949, Schaefer had to do an average of 16 burpees per minute.

"Try to do five and see what it feels like," commented Michael Elliot, president of the Edmonton Police Association.

"Part of me wants to jump out there with him but I wouldn’t last 30 seconds."

Schaefer told CTV News Edmonton it took months of training to prepare.

"It was really tough in the last 15 minutes or so, but I wasn’t even thinking about that. I was just trying to focus on each burpee at a time."

After some rest with his family, Schaefer will send in an application for his attempt to be verified by Guinness World Records.

The last record was held by Eva Clarke, who did 920 chest-to-ground push-up burpees in one hour in Dubai in November 2016. An Australian, Macauley Jones, also has a record for doing 870 chest-to-ground burpees in an hour in June.

Whatever the result, Schaefer had raised more than $5,000 as of Saturday evening.

"It keeps us afloat and allows us to provide the services for the community that are affected by autism," said the organization's executive director, Leslie Allen.

On average, one in 66 Canadian children is diagnosed with autism. According to Autism Edmonton, the numbers have increased significantly in the last five years.

"People are being educated about it so they're seeking diagnosis, whereas before they would just actually live with some of their struggles and just accept that as just being normal everyday life," she explained.

Schaefer is raising money until Dec. 13.

With a report from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson