BostonBound59

The Gate City Striders is New Hampshire’s largest running club. One of the Club’s most successful community outreach activities over the last twenty years has been its annual “Fitness University” program. Fitness University is completely free of charge, open to all children in the community ages 3 thru 14 and is comprised of a series of eight weekly 90 minute “clinics” centered around running as both a fun and healthy lifestyle choice. The children are grouped together by age and the activities vary by group ranging from games of tag, follow the leader and short relays for the younger children up to more involved stretching and running activities for the older children. At the end of each clinic every child receives a small prize and refreshments with the Fitness University clinics culminating in a “Finals Day”. Finals Day is a special half day event where the children become “graduates” of Fitness University and run varying distances on the track depending on age as well as participate in many other fun Finals Day activities such as face painting, special relays, obstacle courses etc. All of the weekly clinics as well as Finals Day are staffed by volunteer Strider members sharing their love of running for the benefit of children in the community.

You have to see Fitness University in person to believe it. Under the leadership of Striders Leeann and Trevor Ward (Trevor is pictured above--I couldn't catch Leeann as she was in constant motion) the growth of Fitness University has been simply phenomenal. This year’s attendance at the weekly clinics has been regularly in excess of 300 and this past week at Fairgrounds Junior High School in Nashua I would venture to guess there were close to 400 children. Fitness University is near and dear to our proverbial hearts as it was one of the first places our two boys were introduced to running. I often joke with my oldest (who now runs Div. I college cross country and track) that it all began with “Duck Duck Goose” at Fitness U. Both of our boys participated in the weekly clinics and finals day back in the 1990’s and have come back periodically to volunteer when they are available during the summer. This week I was in charge of five year old boys and in between breaking up a few wrestling matches and discouraging the pulling and throwing of lumps of grass we had a great night. I’ve posted some pictures above including the one at the top of Gate City Striders President Michelle Poublon and Strider volunteer Karen Pattelena.

Here is the Fitness U link http://www.runfitnessu.com/