Gaultney Memorial Park in the City of LeRoy was already home to a ball pit, basketball court and several shaded seating areas and grills. Now it has an outdoor fitness court, too.
This fitness court was developed by LeRoy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and the National Fitness Campaign [NFC] to expand free access to workouts and create equitable access to exercise for communities. LeRoy alderwoman Kelly Lay played a key part.
“We have a lot of parks for a community of 4000,” Lay said. “When we were looking for a space for this, we wanted to serve an area of town that doesn't have its own unique, beautiful park. Galtney Memorial Park was sitting here, and it had been on the docket for some improvements for a while. And so it just made really great sense.”
The partnership with Blue Cross and NFC along with LeRoy allowed the city to press forward with the project through a grant LeRoy had to submit for, which they eventually secured. The fitness court is also meant to serve as a national initiative promoting physical activity and exercise. According to the NFC, more than 750 courts have been put in place across the United States, with plans to build 5,000 by 2030.
“National Fitness Campaign is who coordinates the fitness courts. They also maintain a really cool app on how to use the fitness courts and help to promote and keep them looking nice,” Lay said.
The app Lay spoke about allows for fitness court users across the country to connect and share their favorite workouts and routines. It also gives users the ability to compete in challenges from hundreds of miles away. The fitness court has a QR code displayed on the wall for users to get involved with the national community right from Gaultney Park.
“Individual trainers can build their own programs with videos. They can source and use videos that already exist; they can make their own videos and they can craft training plans based on where you are in your life, what your goals are, things along those lines,” Lay said.
Lay said she hopes the fitness court will revitalize the area and already has plans in motion. Fitness courts nationwide have the option to paint a mural on the opposite wall from the equipment. Communities can pick from generic options or create their own.
“Mayor Steve Dean took a lot of time to kind of go back and forth with them to make sure that it really reflected our community. You'll notice a lot of wild native plants [on the mural] that reflect one of our native gardens here in the park. We hope to expand that out to mirror the mural, but also a cardinal and some other features that really tie into LeRoy, so it is custom to our town,” Lay said.
Although the fitness court is mostly made up of steel, steel rope and weather resistant rubber matting the park still need to be maintained. Lay said she does not foresee this being a problem in LeRoy.
“The great thing about municipalities is that we think really long term. There's no one person's lifetime attached to maintaining the city. The city goes on and we have a really great parks and streets department.” Lay said, “It's well maintained, even if the equipment gets old, and we cycle between the parks and revitalize them and add new features, and help them out.”
LeRoy is also planning an official ribbon cutting for the fitness court at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, which Lay said will be more than just a showcase.
“It's really about a little showing off. We were the first one in the area. We're kind of excited about that. A little bit about connecting and sharing and community. Anytime LeRoy has an opportunity for us all to get together. We always throw a big party.”
Several community members have been invited to the opening including Living Well United, Senior Citizens Center and Recreation Center Replex. Lay said she is sure there will be more partners to announce. She also added that LeRoy is hoping to have a fitness challenger with the police department showing up and competing against a to-be-announced opponent. There will also be a local trainer at the opening.
“We have a local trainer based out of LeRoy, who's going to come and do fitness demonstrations, so she'll actually be helping people to navigate how to use this equipment because it is open to the public and it's free to use, and so we're really excited to showcase kind of these different things,” Lay said.
For the park to be a success, Lay said all the needs to happen is LeRoyans need to be outside using the infrastructure.
“I would love to see this become really a third space, or like a space outside of home and work, where we can connect together and enjoy being a community,” Lay said. “You'll see a lot of people in motion around LeRoy, and that makes it a lot easier to connect parks and things to people. We are in the process of building out new sidewalks, so we're hoping to connect this park to the elementary school.”
Lay describes the town as walkable, which is seen through interconnected schools and neighborhoods surrounding the town's parks. The Fitness Court also exists four blocks from the Senior Center and five blocks from the Replex, the town's indoor/outdoor recreation center.
“The benefit of being a small town is we are very interconnected, and you can access a large part of the city with just a short walk,” Lay said.
Lay encourages anyone with an interest to come and visit, but also to get involved with Le Roy. She said if anyone has ideas they should simply reach out because the town wants to hear from anyone with feedback.
“You want to see the park have this feature or that feature, or even you're willing to put in some elbow grease to make that happen. I would love to hear from you. We can definitely talk shop about anything in the city. My door is always open,” Lay said.
The Fitness Court’s grand opening is 10 a.m. Sept. 12 in Gaultney Memorial Park, LeRoy. There will be a ribbon cutting and activities for attendees to get them involved.
