Lifetime of fitness
Olivet Boys & Girls Club Ricketts Center equips children and adults with tools
Youth and adults are taking their wellness to the next level with low-cost opportunities provided at the Olivet Boys & Girls Club Ricketts Center in Pottstown.
The community program is not only making it possible for their youth members to become equipped with healthy lifestyle tools but it’s also opening their doors to adults in the region looking to get fit.
The Olivet Club provides afterschool and summer programs to youth between the ages of 6 and 18 in both Berks and Montgomery Counties.
“It’s only $15 for children to participate in our afterschool program for the whole school year. That’s a one-time fee of $15 per child,” said Nick Philippides, the Pottstown Ricketts Center director.
The club includes programs about academics, character and citizenship, and wellness. Last month, the Pottstown club was awarded a $15,000 KidCents Regional Grant through The Rite Aid Foundation. The funds will go toward the program’s Triple Play Healthy Lifestyles initiative.
Philippides said Triple Play is a Boys & Girls Club of America program so it’s offered throughout the nation. He said the wellness initiative has a variety of aspects with a focus on healthy eating habits and physical fitness.
“Nutrition and exercise have such a tremendous impact on a child’s development — on their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing — that we make the Triple Play program a high priority here at the club,” Philippides stated in a press release.
The youth participate in games and challenges as part of the healthy lifestyles program.
Philippides said the challenges help motivate the kids to exercise and gives them something to approve upon. Activities include weight-lifting, relay races, sports games and more.
The club is currently looking at the possibly of purchasing weight equipment specifically designed for children with the grant they received in February.
Philippides said there is also a chance a side-to-side rock-climbing wall will be put in at the club.
A Healthy Habits program of the Triple Play initiative teaches children all about nutrition.
Paul Winterbottom, program facilitator and health & wellness coordinator at the Pottstown Ricketts Center, said youth take a pretest and post-test about nutrition. He said the test allows everyone to see just how much knowledge is gained over a couple of months.
As part of the nutrition program, children learn about the basic food groups and even make healthy recipes such as smoothies.
“It’s amazing how much they learn because in this day and age, they (the youth) want to be fit,” Winterbottom said.
Philippides said giving youth tools they can use to live a healthy lifestyle is “critical.”
“Seeing the kids really begin to internalize certain nutritional concepts they didn’t have before … that’s really rewarding to know that’s going to stay with them for a long time,” he said.
Children aren’t the only ones able to benefit from the wellness focus of the Pottstown Ricketts Center.
A fitness boot camp is available for adults to utilize on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. People within and outside the Pottstown Borough can join the bi-weekly class. The cost is $15 for a one-year session from September to September.
Winterbottom said the camp is all about using your own body weight for fitness. Exercises include squats, pushups, running and more.
“It’s custom made for each person,” he said.
Winterbottom said people of all different fitness abilities participate in the boot camp. A typical session will have people divided into several groups with each group doing a different rotation of exercises. Everybody isn’t doing the same type of movement at once and people can join a group with others on a similar fitness level.
Nicole DiNenna of Phoenixville has been coming to the fitness boot camp for the past two years. Winterbottom is her personal trainer and he introduced her to the community exercise class.
“It’s a commitment but I enjoy it too,” she said. “For me, it’s a really great stress reliever as well.”
DiNenna said the boot camp and her one-on-one sessions with Winterbottom have led to her losing a lot of weight. She said she’s now stronger and feels better about herself.
For more information about the Olivet Boys & Girls Club Ricketts Center, visit the website www. olivetbgc.org.
The Pottstown club is located at 658 Beech St. and the contact number is 484945-1020.