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PhysicallyFIT
Fusion
Volunteerism
Builds New Fitness Facility
for Public High School.
T
he new fitness facility at the Young Women’s
Leadership School at Rhodes was finished on
Saturday, September 20, 2008.
To the outside observer, the United States is a nation of two minds
when it comes to being health conscious. Nutritional and fitness
education are growing niche agendas in younger and younger communities,
mirroring their decade-long position in the lives of affluent
young adults. But on the flipside, some communities, organizations,
and families struggle to meet the high cost of staying-healthy
care. Inner city schools and children are often neglected by society
when it comes to physical education and nutritional empowerment.
Almost two years ago, since Fusion: HEART.MUSCLE.MIND’s
inception, Fusion embarked on a mission of volunteerism and
fundraising for the Young Women’s Leadership School at
Rhodes. The Rhodes School is an all girls public high school in
North Philadelphia (N 29th Street, near Allegheny) supported by a
non-profit foundation that runs schools in lower income neighborhoods.
While Rhodes students have many environmental and
financial challenges, the school has had an amazing success in
sending their committed students to college, with nearly 95% of
the graduating class attending universities. Simply put, the students
at Rhodes have the drive if given the opportunity.
Fusion began working with the Rhodes School to help provide an
outside source of fitness and wellness education that focuses on
lifestyle choices. Fusion staff supplemented the educational opportunities
with real-world perspectives and new resources. Each
semester, Fusion mentored a new group of girls, taking them
through an enhanced health curriculum, which included nutrition,
fitness, and goal setting and understanding their importance.
Fusion’s own Center City state-of-the-art facility was also opened to
the students, to provide a different and inspiring outlet for activity.
“I want Fusion to always have a philanthropic goal of building
communities of fitness and wellness,” explained Fusion founder,
Gavin McKay. “The Rhodes School’s mission is in step with our
ideas, and so we’ve been able to supplement their classes with
real world lifestyle coaching and inspiration.”
Besides education, Fusion embarked on a daunting project to
build Rhodes a fitness center from an empty unused space off the
gymnasium. The new fitness center was designed to be a welcome
place for any student seeking fitness, but to also help the school’s
budding sports programs. “Most health and fitness professionals
originally got their star in a school gym and/or sports program, so
when I realized that Rhodes had no fitness center – we decided
that Fusion had to find a way to build them one. Healthy habits
start young so if we can affect these students early on, we have
made a huge impact.”
In September of 2007, Fusion held a successful fundraiser where
clients were able to sponsor pieces of equipment and view the fitness
center design. One hundred percent of the funding for this
project has been through donations of money, equipment and time
– all from Fusion clientele. Over the course of the last year,
March/April 2009 I 215-396-0268 I www.phillyfit.com PhillyFIT I 41