Last modified Wed., April 09, 2008 - 05:07 PM
Originally created Thursday, April 10, 2008

New Family Fitness Center opens here

By Kaylee LaRocque, Editor

From left, NAS Jax Fitness Director Tim McKinney, NAS Jax Executive Officer Capt. Steve Holmes and NAS Jax Youth Activities Center Director Megan Elliot cut the ribbon to officially open the new Family Fitness Center on the second floor of the YAC gymnasium April 1 as a group of kids from the center look on. Photo by Kaylee LaRocque

The new Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Department Family Fitness Center officially opened for business April 1. The center is located on the second floor of the Youth Activities Center gymnasium and offers a wide array of Life Fitness equipment for use by authorized patrons. MWR has invested nearly $36,500 to create the new center.

"Our goal is to enhance healthy lifestyles for Navy families. This new center provides the opportunity for families to come and work out with their children. It's great for those parents who are home with their children during the day and can't go to the Fitness Source or gym to workout," said NAS Jax Fitness Director Tim McKinney. "It's great because now we can show the smaller children how to have a healthy lifestyle."

Patrons can also get some assistance with their workouts. "I'm a personal trainer and am available to develop individual programs for our patrons and update them as needed to keep workouts from becoming stagnant," said Fitness Instructor/Trainer Emily Dunlap.

"This really is a great opportunity for the parent who stays home with the smaller children because they can bring them in when they work out and keep them within their sight. It will help parents get back into working out and living a healthy lifestyle," she continued, enthusiastically.

The new center, formally a teen center, has been completely refurbished with new paint, carpet, exercise equipment and a special play area for younger children.

For more information on the new family fitness center, call 778-9772.