The Portage YMCA and the City of Portage have come together to present Portage on the Move, an initiative that has started this summer to bring the community together for free fitness events.
The YMCA will be hosting free noncompetitive 5K’s for Fitness Fridays on the third Thursday of every month from now through September. Participants can walk, run, bike or anything else that gets them moving for 3.1 miles. The family dog is also welcome to join.
The 5K will begin and end at the YMCA of Portage and will offer several water stations along the way for participants to stay hydrated. There will also be classes at Frank Gilbert park like Zumba on June 11, Boot Camp on July 9, and the Fit Family Challenge on August 13.
The goal of the initiative is to get the community to move and to connect with one another.
“Let’s get the whole community together and walk, run, bike, jog, pull your kid in the stroller, whatever you want to do. Just move.” said Amber Alexander, CEO of the Portage YMCA.
The idea came about after the City of Portage decided to expand city benefits by offering city employees memberships at the Portage YMCA to promote good health and physical activity.
Chris Stidham, Portage Clerk Treasurer, said that the goal was to get employees more active at the YMCA, but also in the hopes of getting them more active and involved within the community.
“There’s sometimes a disconnect between the organizations and the city and the community itself and, you know, we’re not tied in as closely as we’d like to be.”
The city currently pays for all of the city employees’ health insurance costs right now. Stidham hopes that giving the employees memberships to the YMCA will help offset the costs of healthcare over time with less future health claims and less sick days.
After Stidham brought the idea to Alexander, it expanded rapidly into the addition of free community events like Fitness Fridays and classes in Frank Gilbert Park to not only get city employees active, but to also bring the entire community together as a whole in the name of physical fitness.
After holding the first successful Fitness Friday on May 20, Alexander is looking forward to the next event on June 17.
“We had a four generation family that was there. They had their two sets of twins; two years olds and 9 years olds, Mom, grandma, and great grandma.” said Alexander. “It was so cool. And it was just awesome to see that family come out and then make connections with other families.”
What started as a idea to get city employees active within the community has turned into a free fun fitness initiative to bring the entire City of Portage together to mingle and build relationships through physical fitness.
“The goal is to get people to talk, to meet their neighbors and then when we start meeting our neighbors, we take ownership of our city and we want to help the nonprofits and we want to help the city and we want to help each other.” said Alexander.
Anyone interested in joining in on all the fun can learn more and sign up online here.