Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter
The Southern Connecticut State University Fitness Center along with the Office of Campus Recreation and Programs Council is currently in the middle of Fit 4 Fun, a four part series of group exercise classes being offered to SCSU students for free.
Fitness Center Graduate Intern Allison Blacker said the event is all about having fun while exercising.
“The whole thing is called Fit 4 Fun and it’s a free series of group exercise classes that we have collaborated with Campus Rec, and the purpose of the series is to get students on campus exposed to different ways that they can be involved in fitness while making it fun at the same time,” Blacker said.
The first class that was offered took place last month and the second one, a Zumba class, was held on Feb. 19, Blacker said.
“It is a series of four classes, we had our first class which was the Insanity class that was Jan. 29 and yesterday we had our Zumba, which was a collaboration with ProCon as well,” she said. “It was Zumba Glow, so it was really cool because it was in the dark, lots of glow sticks and stuff, so that was fun.”
Blacker said the other classes being offered to students as part of Fit 4 Fun are upcoming in the next few weeks.
“The next one we have coming up is Monday, Mar. 10 and that is going to be Yoga at 8 p.m. in the ballroom. And then the last one in the series will be Monday, Apr. 7 and that is Hip Hop, and that is again at 8 p.m. in the ballroom,” she said.
Campus Recreation Graduate Intern Ben Vetter said that the Fit 4 Fun program seems to be a success.
“We have already seen it,” Vetter said, “everybody enjoys it, all the programs that we have put on they have all enjoyed it so far. So we are hoping they will tell their friends about it and more people will come. We are definitely hoping to see numbers increase as the series goes on.”
Fitness Center Coordinator Jessica Scibek said Fit 4 Fun was created to with a goal in mind to help assist students who might not be regular members of the Fitness Center find out that they enjoy some of the classes that are offered there through the four classes which she felt were great selections.
“I mean it couldn’t be more varied, the selection of classes we picked,” she said.
Vetter said that the first 25 people who arrive at the Fit 4 Fun classes receive a special bonus.
“We are also rewarding the first 25 people that show up with free t-shirts in every class,” he said. “So that is a plus.”
“They seem pretty excited about the t-shirts,” Scibek added.
The partnership with other offices is something that Scibek said has really added to the Fit 4 Fun program.
“Partnering up with the Office of Campus Recreation has made it better than if we tried to do it on our own and last night’s program partnering also with Programs Council made it even better than it would have been just our two offices combined,” she said. “It was really nice to work together with Programs Council to make it an enjoyable event for the students.”
Blacker said the partnership also has aided in the attendance of the Fit 4 Fun classes.
“The opportunity to collaborate with different departments lets them bring in more students from each of those areas,” Blacker said. “It was cool because Pro Con, they have all of their groups of friends and hopefully they bring their friends.”
The recent Zumba class caused excitement in students who were not aware that the activity was offered by the Fitness Center, Blacker said, and this was one of the goals of the program.
“I think that the students who do come are now hopefully excited about what they did. The students coming out, it was great, yesterday, they were like, ‘So you guys have Zumba classes?’ like some of them didn’t even know that this is what we offer on a weekly basis, so giving them a free opportunity to come and try it with all of their friends, might encourage them to want to get a membership and keep up that one class that they liked,” Blacker said.
That the first two of the four classes offered by the Fit 4 Fun series have been so well received, Blacker said, has been really great.
“It is really cool to hear that students enjoy it and not come out and be like ‘Oh my gosh, that was terrible’ or something like that,” she said. “They all come out with smiles. So that is great and we know they leave feeling like they got Fit 4 Fun.”
