Donated equipment benefits Wheatland region

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Standard School received $200,000 worth of donated gym equipment from Apple Fitness that will be used by the students and residents of East Wheatland County.
The plan is to keep students, staff and residents of Wheatland County active while having a fitness centre close to home.
“We struck a deal with Apple Fitness, which basically when they go in to replace old equipment, they’ll donate that back to schools. We’ve gotten since last September $200,000 additional equipment donated and purchased to us,” said Standard School assistant Principal Greg Lendvay.
“This year we’re up to 21 pieces of cardio equipment because that’s what the students are into. They’ve all got iPod connectors, so the students are environmentally friendly, actually charging their phones while they’re working out,” said Lendvay.
The long-term plan of the gym set-up is to have a virtual trainer on the equipment rather than having a professional trainer come in.
“The future is virtual trainer type of things especially in a rural location as opposed to having a physical trainer. We do have a training process, all of our kids from Grade 7 to 12 are incorporating it into their classes,” said Lendvay.
“We have the addition of two new high school fitness credit classes, which is new to the school that we’ve never had before. We’re looking to establish some partnerships with Alberta Health Services with our K-12 Wellness initiative and offer community and school based services that we can collaborate on.”
Standard Mayor, Alan Larsen, is looking to engage and promote fitness to Standard and the rest of the county by making the gym available to the public.
“I’m looking at Jan. 1, 2015, right now I have a list of about 10 people who have already contacted me and are interested in using the facility, and still open for more people,” said Larsen. “Between Greg and myself I think we’ll try and streamline this so that it can work for almost anybody in the community. We’ll have some rules that will have to be followed like we’re not going to let people work out on their own,” said Larsen.
The target age group for the facility is for all students and some enhanced programs will be put in place for those who play other sports.
“We’re looking at some high performance training for some of the students that play hockey and ringette on specialized teams or targeting some of the obesity that’s becoming more of a problem in society,” said Lendvay.
The feedback has been really positive and will help the school’s case for a new fitness facility once the new school is built.
“We’re getting a lot of student feedback that is very positive and supportive. I think with this amount of equipment, what we’re building is a case for we need a new fitness facility in the new school moving forward that actually supports the entire region,” said Lendvay.
If you have any questions, you can contact Alan Larsen at 403-901-6411 or Greg Lendvay at Standard School 403-644-3791.