Sunday, March 30, 2008 10:28 PM CDT
Martinsville Fitness Center serves both school, community
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
MARTINSVILLE — The Martinsville Junior/Senior High School opened a new fitness center last spring to house grant-funded exercise equipment, but something was missing.
Superintendent Jill Rogers said the top-of-the-line equipment was sitting idle after the students went home for the day. She said school district officials decided to put this equipment to full use by opening the newly dubbed Martinsville Fitness Center to the rest of the community last fall.
“We get a lot of support from the community, so we thought if we could do something for them we should do it,” Rogers said.
School officials are continuing to spread the word about this new community resource, located behind the high school on the east side of the football field.
The fitness center is open to the public from 6-8 a.m. and 5-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday every week. The facility features weight and elliptical machines, treadmills and stationary bicycles.
“We are pretty proud of it. It’s a nice little center. We did not have anything like it in town,” Rogers said.
According to Rogers, the school’s exercise equipment previously consisted of a “couple of free weights and battered old machines” housed on the stage of the old gymnasium. Consequently, she said the district applied for a Carol M. White Physical Education Program grant.
“When we applied for the grant, it was kind of a long shot. It was a competitive federal grant. You don’t often see those go to little schools,” Rogers said.
School officials learned in 2005 that they had won an approximately $200,000 grant. Rogers said the funding was divided between the exercise equipment, group physical education games for Martinsville Elementary School, and fitness training for the teaching staff.
Rogers said the exercise equipment initially was placed in the old gymnasium, but this did not work out well with the physical education classes and spring musical programming held there. Consequently, she said the district decided to build a new facility to house the equipment.
The high school building trades classes constructed the fitness center, starting in spring 2006. The students built a 1,792-square-foot structure that has a 10-foot ceiling.
Justin Parcel, who was the industrial technology teacher at the time, said the students poured the concrete floor, framed the walls, installed the roof, insulated the building, and handled most of the other work, with the principal exceptions of the electrical and air conditioning/heating components.
“I think the kids learned a lot from doing it about what it takes to build a building from start to finish,” Parcel said. “That building is going to be there a long time and they can come back and say, ‘Hey, I helped build it.’”
Community hours at the fitness center are funded by one-year memberships for in-district and out-of-district participants, as well as short-term memberships through punch cards. Memberships can be purchased through the unit office or at www.martinsville.k12.il.us, while punch cards can be bought at the unit office or fitness center.
Supervisor Angie Shelton said center members have been getting fit while socializing. She said members tend to exercise in pairs, such as married couples, friends, or a parent and student.
Shelton said residents are still adjusting to having a community gym in Martinsville for the first time. Shelton said she and her fellow part-time worker, Lee Whitacre, are there to help them get used to the fitness center.
“When they first sign up, we go through all the machines and make sure they know what they are doing and start out slow,” Shelton said.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734.
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Take_Time wrote on Mar 31, 2008 7:06 AM: