Fitness coach shows kids it’s OK to be different
Bornwith parts of her fingers and toes missing, Maxine Haber got used to the stares and questions while growing up.
Now, as a mother of two and owner of a fitness program for preschoolers, she’s using her “different limbs” condition to teach little kids about accepting others, and themselves, just the way they are.
“Hopefully, the message iswhenthey see a childwho is different than them, because they had that experience with Coach Maxine, they can bemore accepting,” saidHaber, 40, ofNorth Miami.
For more than two years, Haber has taken her personally designed STARcise fitness program on the road to preschools, community events and parties in Broward and Miami- Dade counties, leading kids ages 2 to 5 through a series of exercises, fromstretches to aerobics to pushups and a cooldown.
She wrote and produced music for the 30- minute program, now part of the weekly curriculum at four South Florida preschools.
Endi Tennenhaus, director of the Chai Tots Preschool in Hallandale Beach, said Haber makes a point to explain to the kids what the “star” in STARcise stands for: Smart, Talented, Athletic and — most fitting — Respect.
“For our 4- and 5- year- olds, they definitely get the message,” Tennenhaus said. “She gives them confidence and teaches them that everybody has the capacity to reach their potential.” Hoping to instill a passion for exercise, the certified youth fitness instructor also knows that her physical appearance at the front of the classroom is catching her young pupils’ eyes.
“Kids at that age, they have no filter. They’ll ask me, ‘ Coach Maxine, what happened to your fingers?’ ” saidHaber, who recently received the 2014 Entrepreneur of theYearAward from the Florida chapter of the Junior Chamber International business group. “I’ll say, ‘ Oh, did I leave them at home?’ And they’ll laugh.”
When Haber’s mother was in her second trimester, she was accidentally kicked in the stomach by a child playing in the pool, Haber said. The trauma, resulting in a condition called amniotic band syndrome, affected the development of the ring and middle fingers on Haber’s left hand and the same toes on her left foot. Her right foot, severed at the ankle, was reattached after birth.
The middle of three girls, Haber was raised to think she was no different. She had to do chores and get good grades just like her sisters, and she said her mother even forced the naturalborn rightie to use her left hand as the dominant limb “so I wouldn’t think anythingwaswrongwithit.”
But theworld outside her homewas not so kind. Other kids would tease and taunt her, asking her what was wrongwithherandrefusing to play with her for fear that her condition was contagious. The boys in middle school told her no one wouldwant tomarryher because she didn’t “evenhave a finger to put the ring on.”
The bullying made its mark, affording Haber the determination as an adult to teach kids about being different.
“Everybody inmy class is different in their ownway. [ I tell them], ‘ I lovemyself just the way I am, even if I’m different,’ ” she said. “I hope whenthey growup, they can say, ‘ If Coach Maxine can get up there in front of all those kids and dance, I can do that, too. I don’t have to fade into the background, either.’ ”