New fitness centre opens at Rainy River Recreation complex

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Are you ready for a workout?
Well the Rainy River Recreation Board is ready for you to use their new fitness centre. The RR Recreation Fitness Centre opened its door to the public on Monday during Ontario Family Day.
Rec. Board member Rebecca Tolen was on hand to show the new equipment to anyone interested and explain how the centre is going to operate.
It will generally be open to members of the public 16 and over when the RR Community Centre/Arena are open. At present that is usually 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and in the afternoon’s on Sundays while figure skating is going on. Tolen is planning to use volunteers to open it on Saturdays.
Those wishing to use it must pay $10 per month or $100 per year for a membership. Family memberships are $150 and those under 18 must have a parental waiver signed. Since there is no full time staff supervising anyone under 16 can not use the facility.
Members can reserve a specific piece of equipment as far as two days in advance and can use it up to 45 mins straight or longer if no one has reserved it after them.
The Rec. Board received a grant to purchase the equipment from Active Ontario. They purchased $12,000 worth of equip. That includes a rowing machine, an elliptical, two treadmills, a recumbent bike and commercial grade free weight benches.
The treadmills feature fully computerized options including a place to plug a person’s MP3 player into and speakers to listen to their music. They also have fans and electronic read outs. “Some people may want to learn how to use the equipment and I am more than willing to help them with that,” said Tolen. In addition to the open house Monday there is another one this evening from 5-8 p.m.
The new fitness room was built by the Rainy River High School shop class so the labour was free. In total the centre cost about $15,000 to get open. Tolen said they need some proper flooring for the room but that will cost another $3,000. The board also would like to put a Universal in the room and eventually a key card door so people can come and go any time.
For now they are open and she is hoping the memberships will keep the RR Rec. Fitness Centre self-sufficient. “We did not do any fund-raising for it and hope not to have to,” said Tolen.
She noted that the room was built two years ago and the board had received the $12,000 equipment grant. “We had to spend the money or they were going to take it back.” That was the catalyst for her and board member Grace Seguin to pick up the ball and run with it last fall.
Now it is open and we hope a lot of residents want to use it. However, they are asking that people with known health conditions not use the facility. “This is mainly for those who are healthy and want to be fit. Those with health conditions should consult their doctor and use the fitness centre at the Rainy River Health Centre.”
“I am very excited that it is open. There were a lot of starts and stops and I am not a very patient person,” said Tolen.
There is also a DVD player that plays music or videos in the room as well as a t.v. donated by Kristine Brown.