Community fitness center coming to Whitehall

WHITEHALL, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – Three local groups are collaborating to open a free, accessible community fitness center for people who live in and around Whitehall. As First News at Nine’s Daniel Gomez explains, they’re hoping the new center will help with not just physical health, but mental health as well.

Work is being done in this room at the Whitehall School District’s building. “There is no fitness center anywhere for anybody of any age in the community to work out within a 20-mile radius of Whitehall.”

Wisconsin Dairyland, the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Trempealeau County and Inclusa partnered up to help provide a gym. “Right away when we talk about what could this look like, and who would be partners for this project, the school came to mind.”

“I think the first answer was easy. Absolutely!”

This blueprint is the tentative plan. The coalition intends for everyone in the rural communities surrounding the school district to use it, no matter their ability or age. “We really wanted equipment that everybody can use.”

These agencies are focusing on one group in particular, “The health impact loneliness can have on an individual is a 30% decrease in mortality. Which is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.”

The goal is to help the elderly facing the dangers of isolation. Everyone involved says what better way than having generations of these rural communities help each other out? “The more opportunities we have for our kids to work with our seniors, and vice versa, you can’t have anything but benefits with that.”

Overall, the hope is to not run out of ideas for improving the community. “Beyond the creating of this fitness center, we’ll continue to find other ways to improve the livability and decrease social isolation in the community.”

Grant money through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services is just the warmup for this project and the agencies could use more help. In Whitehall, Daniel Gomez, First News at Nine.

The equipment for the fitness center alone is estimated at $100 thousand. Donations are being accepted. The fitness center is expected to open by the end of the year at the latest.