The North Thompson Activity Centre (NTAC), located at the Barriere Ridge, seeks your support for its newest endeavour. After having provided care for Barriere’s children after school, and through its summer camps, as well as offering facilities for a wide range of activities within its facility at the Ridge for years now, we look to meet the needs of the adults/seniors (children of all ages) within the region for a fitness centre.
There are opportunities for funding to assist with this project, but community support is vital. We are confident that there is indeed need and desire for this to happen, yet expressed support is advised to ensure funders are convinced that the need is real.
The benefits of a public fitness centre are real indeed. Even as this region boasts extensive outdoor exercise, it does not negate the need for an indoor gym. Many folks cannot avail themselves of the great outdoors for a variety of reasons.
Even as available as our outdoor exercise appears to be, a gym provides immediate satisfaction and relief whereas the outdoors cannot. Fitness equipment allows one to challenge cardio rates, and achieve strength workouts in a short amount of time. People who work long hours each day, can squeeze a workout in, before work, during a lunch break, or quickly after work, whereas they may not have time for a challenging hike or bike ride that might achieve the same value.
A gym offers a safe environment, with a community spirit. Some individuals may not feel comfortable to venture into nature solo, and prefer a space designed to meet their physical needs alongside others with the same intent. A gym offers camaraderie of purpose.
Although nature does offer soothing energies to aid us in our hectic lives, so does the gym offer respite from the stress of our economic challenges and busy lives. No one leaves a gym depressed! A fitness centre such as we propose generates a healthy balance of physical, emotional, spiritual well-being.
Some ailments of body prohibit a person from even taking a leisurely walk in the park. But that same person might be able to utilize simple mechanics within a gym that supply them ever needed strength in a safe way. This applies to people with specific injuries, people that require special exercises to recover, that need rehabilitation.
The intent of the proposed fitness centre is to be accessible to everyone in need. The term “accessible”, in this case, refers to physical, as well as, financial accessibility. No one will be refused access based upon low income. As the Activity Centre is a non-profit establishment, its goals are for the health of the community first and foremost. And, as there is no gym within 45 minutes of our locale, it certainly would be more accessible and available.
So we invite you to respond by letter, or email, in your own words, why this might be important for you and for our region. The North Thompson Activity Centre wants to serve as this healthy centre located in Barriere, the heart of the Lower North Thompson region. There are opportunities to participate in greater fashion, as well, in that we invite donations, and offer sponsorships of equipment that would feature your organization, or family’s name upon it. We can all play a part in making this happen!
We thank you for your vote of confidence in having trusted your children in our care, and appreciate those of you who have joined the organization as members over the past years. Now we seek to collaborate with you towards this bigger goal to meet the needs of our people and make our community a better place.
