Boston gets acquainted with Club INdustry East, and attendees get a preview of Club Industry 2000 in Chicago next month.
BOSTON - The fitness professionals who attended Club Industry East got a taste of what Club Industry 2000 promises to bring in October. Held for the first time in Boston, Club Industry East gave 3,579 attendees the opportunity to explore offerings from more than 140 exhibitors and take part in over 110 seminars, including a conference program dedicated to Club Industry magazine's ongoing "War on Obesity."
In addition to seminars and exhibits, Club Industry East featured a keynote address from health and fitness legend Jack LaLanne, who also took charge of early morning aerobic sessions. Club Industry East was also designated the official spring conference and trade show by NEHRSA (the New England Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association). Finally, it was the site of the World Gym Eastern University Seminar, "How to Prosper in a Highly Competitive Marketplace," an educational gathering for owners and top-level managers of World Gym locations.
Although a smaller, re-gional show, Club Industry East set the tone for what's to come when Club Industry 2000 arrives at McCor-mick Place North in Chicago next month. Scheduled for Oct. 25-28, this national show will feature 250 industry vendors and 100,000 square feet of exhibits.
Operation FitKids (OFK) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the development of America's youth by providing schools, community centers, and other public venues with recycled commercial fitness equipment to promote youth wellness nationwide. The organization works together with existing community outreach programs to maximize manpower capabilities and budgets.
To achieve its goals, Operation FitKids relies heavily on the support from companies that will benefit from the promotion of youth wellness, including commercial health and fitness facilities and suppliers to the industry. And already, many have responded to the association's request for assistance.
Beginning with this issue, Club Industry inaugurates a monthly column that will recognize the organizations that have provided the most recent support for Operation FitKids. Please join Operation FitKids and the Club Industry staff in our appreciation of these community-minded fitness professionals.
Equipment Donation - Suppliers - Icarian Fitness Equipment/Fitness Products International
- Hoist Fitness Systems
- Life Fitness
- Nautilus International
- StairMaster Health & Fitness Products
- Star Trac By Unisen Inc.
- The Step Co.
Equipment Donation - Fitness Facility - Club One
Other Cash and In-kind Contributors - American Council on Exercise (ACE)
- Dodge-Regupol Co.
- Health & Fitness Business Conference
- Ron Hemelgarn - Great Lakes Leasing
- Henry Hriczko Trucking Co.
- Reebok
- Sporting Goods Manufacturers of America (SGMA)
Within the last three months, four OFK sites have opened. The organization needs your support to open pending new sites in California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois and New York.
- Keeper Springs for donating all profits, after taxes, to the Water Keeper Alliance, which was created to help clean-water organizations that safeguard public waterways. Started by the late Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his two close friends Chris Bartle and John Hoving as a way to help raise money and awareness for the clean-water movement, Keeper Springs makes pure mountain spring water.
- The Fitness Company West One for being listed as one of the country's best hotel fitness centers and spas in Allure magazine. This exclusive club is located in the Monarch Hotel in Washington, D.C.
- Stairmaster Health & Fitness Products, winner of the World Trade Club's 2000 "Governor's Trader of the Year Award." The award recognizes a Washington state business that has demonstrated success in its industry as a leader in international trade. StairMaster joins the ranks of corporations such as Microsoft, Boeing and Eddie Bauer.
- Hank Drought for being voted Personal Trainer of the Year by the National Strength & Conditioning Association.
- Center Club of Libertyville, Ill., for donating $22,000 to four local charities: Lambs Farm, Center for Independent Living, Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association, and Special Recreation of Central Lake County. The club raised the money through the Fourth Annual 5K Twilight Fun Run, which drew 900 participants.
- Michael Vozzeli, a personal trainer at the Landesdown Community YMCA in Upper Darby, Pa., for winning the grand prize in the first-ever "Making a Difference with Life Fitness," or M.A.D., a program to recognize fitness professionals who have improved someone's life with exercise. The runners-up are Stephanie Firth, a personal trainer and group exercise director at Kinetix Sports Club in Fairview Village, Pa., and Robin Altman, a personal trainer and director of the Runners Club at World Gym in Wantagh, N.Y.
- Bally Total Fitness for donating more than $250,000 worth of new clothing to AmeriCares, the national and international disaster-relief organization. This donation was made under Bally's "Stronger Communities" initiative, a program through which Bally provides aid to community service organizations. Over the past few years, cash and in-kind donations made by Bally Total Fitness through the "Stronger Communities" program haved totaled more than $12 million.
- Keiser, recipient of the 2000 Award of Excellence for the Keiser Institute on Aging's fall-prevention program. Given by the Associations Advance America, the award recognizes Keiser for "an outstanding program which has resulted in a significant benefit to American Society."
- Cybex International, Medway, Mass., for being selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top 100 best businesses in the state of Massachusetts. Ranked 82nd, Cybex was included in the top 10 in profit growth from 1998 to 1999 as a percentage of revenue. In addition, The Boston Business Journal included Cybex Internation-al in its ranking of the top 150 public companies in Massachusetts. Cybex ranked 29th in the Largest Net Income Gainers category and was listed as 100th in the Largest Net Income category based on 1999 net income.
v Lifestyle Family Fitness is scheduled to open a new 22,000-square-foot facility in Spring Lake Square, Winter Haven, Fla., next month. The new location will help accommodate the growing membership at a nearby 12,000-square-foot location. In addition to strength equipment, cardio machines and entertainment systems, the new facility will feature Lifestyle's Xpress Workout program, which consists of nine exercise stations supervised by trained fitness instructors.
Lifestyle currently operates nine locations. The company recently secured $5 million in investment capital for growth. Lifestyle plans to add 12 new locations within the next 18 months.
v Goodlife Fitness Clubs of Canada has announced the creation of 500 to 700 new jobs, the result of opening 10 new clubs this year. The Goodlife chain consists of 60 clubs, and the 21-year-old company plans to grow to 100 clubs by the year 2004.
v San Diego Tennis and Racquet Club recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary. On the day of the anniversary, Susan Golding (San Diego's mayor) and the board of supervisors for the County of San Diego marked the occasion by proclaiming it to be "San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club Day." The mayor and board also commended the club for its contributions to the community. Gray Davis, governor of California, congratulated the club for promoting the joys of health and exercise to San Diego. The club celebrated the anniversary with day-long activities that ended with a party attended by more than 1,750 people.
v Carraway Methodist Medical Center, the Birmingham YMCA and the City of Fultondale (Alabama) have joined forces in the construction of a $10 million health and fitness complex. The center is the first project in a program to revitalize the U.S. 31 district in Fultondale, formerly a small mining town. The center will consist of approximately 50,000 square feet divided among Fultondale, Carraway and the YMCA. Construction is scheduled to begin next year for completion in 2002.
v Life Time Fitness, a club chain based in Minneapolis, has partnered with Stock-walk.com. Through this partnership, Life Time Fitness will offer comprehensive online investing services to its club members through www.lifetimefitness.com. Members will soon have the ability to access this Web site, which Stockwalk.com is providing, at Life Time's 20 nationwide locations.
v WOW! Work Out World, Brick, N.J., has licensed its name and logo to a new fitness facility in Norwood, Mass. The new licensee, One Fitness Group, currently owns a Family Fitness Center in Randolph, Mass. Mass-achusetts is a new territory for WOW! The new WOW! licensee joins three other licensees in Connecticut.