Manawa School District to offer memberships
By Greg Seubert
The public spoke and the Manawa School District listened.
Now that school has been in session at Little Wolf Junior/Senior High School for just over a month, the school’s new fitness center is getting plenty of use.
It won’t be long and community members will be able to take advantage of the facility.
The Manawa Rural Fire Department, Manawa Police Department, Manawa EMS staff and school district staff will have access to the center starting Monday, Nov. 2.
Plans call for opening the center – which currently has treadmills and cardio and weight lifting equipment – to the public as soon as January.
“We’re starting on a small scale,” District Administrator Melanie Oppor said. “For staff, it is definitely part of our district wellness program. We wanted to bring in our public servants and give them an opportunity to use the space for physical conditioning.”
The room also includes a teaching station that can be used for pilates and yoga classes.
“There have been a couple of citizens that have talked with us about offering those types of things for adult learning,” Oppor said. “With the pandemic, we’ve had to move a little more slowly and cautiously with some of those plans, but in the future, I do think you’re going to see more widespread usage for a wide array of purposes.
“The hope is starting in January that we would be ready to open to the general public,” she said. “We wanted to move slowly with the process, test it out, get our procedures in place.”
The district will sell memberships to use the center and offer free memberships to senior citizens.
Student use
The center is used almost hourly during the school day, according to junior/senior high school principal Dan Wolfgram.
“It provides students with a greater breadth of opportunity for their physical education classes,” he said. “We know that physical education is moving more toward personal fitness and fitness for life. These are the types of activities that now can be embedded into our curriculum.”
Manawa’s football, volleyball and cross country teams have also been using the facility.
“We have limited gym space, so we’re looking at our curriculum to make sure we’re shaping kids for the future in not just team sports, but the personal fitness aspect of physical education,” Wolfgram said. “We look forward to the time that we can make it available to the community, which is coming very soon.”
Community members and school officials saw a need for a fitness center, which is why it was included in the district’s recent $12 million remodeling and addition project, Oppor said.
“It was really driven by the community,” she said. “We did a school perceptions survey, so all the decisions about the various remodeling or additions were driven by what the community determined as being priorities for us. It was something that I envisioned, but I also think it’s greatly influenced by the needs of the community and the desire to keep community members in their community. Certainly, health and wellness is a priority, particularly now during the pandemic. To provide this opportunity is really special and unique.”
There will be stipulation after the center is made available to the community, including no more than 10 people in the facility at a time.
“There aren’t any other fitness centers in town and I don’t think anyone is going to find anything more reasonably priced than a membership here for a year,” Oppor said. “Plus, you don’t have to drive out of town.”
Wolfgram expects the center to be a hit.
“For those with second- and third-shift jobs, we have a plan of putting together a fob access system,” he said. “They would pay for a membership and if they wanted to come in at 10 o’clock at night and be able to work out on their way home from a shift or before going, we’re looking at being able to provide that opportunity, along with full shower facilities. We’ll have full camera systems for monitoring and once people are into this part of the building, they won’t be given access to the rest of the school, so they can come and go as they please.”
“The original plan was for 24/7 access,” Oppor said. “The nice thing is when you walk in, the lights come on and go off when the person leaves. People can be very flexible when we’re able to open up a little more. We are hoping that even a person recovering from a health event like a heart attack might be able to do some of their rehabilitation right here in town and no longer have to drive 20 minutes in either direction to get that kind of support.”
‘Bright and inviting’
Wolfgram said students he has talked to enjoy the center.
“I think they were awestruck when they first came in, just the fact that it is light and bright and inviting, as opposed to our former weight room,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for our male and female athletes to be able to have space to work out and feel really about what they’re doing. It’s been an overall very, very positive thing for the student body.”
“I would have to say it was quite a ‘wow’ factor, especially when we put the decal on the outside of the facility,” Oppor said. “When you drive up and even before you enter the building, it has an amazing impact on school spirit and building the culture of what it means to be a Manawa Wolf.
“To walk in for the first time and see students using the space, I can’t tell you what joy it brought to my heart to see the smiles, the energy,” she said. “Even with wearing masks, you could see the smiles in their eyes. It was just amazing.”
“The demand that people are putting forth for their own personal fitness machines within their own homes since a lot of the fitness places closed down was astronomical,” Wolfgram said. “We know there is a need out there and we are all about health and wellness right now. We think it’s an advantage for our community members and for people that are looking at school districts. When they’re looking at neighboring school districts, they now know that Manawa has a fitness center. Our enrollments are good this year and we want to continue to maintain an upward trend.”
“We want to stay contemporary,” Oppor said. “The future of education is how do you stay well for life? These are the kinds of things that you can do over a lifetime. That’s what we want to provide for young people.
“I think it was invaluable to be able to have this opportunity,” she added. “We’re very grateful to the community.”