Advocacy

Parrish Fitness Center's Children Center not only is a place where parents drop off their children when they want to pump some iron or walk on the treadmill. They also promote friendship. There are hundreds of families who go to Parrish Fitness Center and put their children through the Children Center. Leaving your child with someone to care for can be a very tough thing to do, but Parrish has wonderful playroom for children to play along with others. Parrish Fitness Center in itself has also created many friendships by:

• having a free weight partner
• treadmill buddy
• swimming partner
• someone you just see in the lobby

Cause and Effect

So I have been trying to volunteer at Parrish Fitness Center's Children Center for about 3 weeks now. I can never get a hold of this lady who is in charge. I'm wondering how she makes a living off this job, seeing she is never there. If I had already volunteered there, I could have made a difference in a child's life, some things being:

• taught a child to read
• taught a child to play with other children
• taught a child to learn a new sport

If I taught them to read, they could become a straight A student. If I taught them to play with others, they could be the most popular kid at their school. If I taught them to learn a new sport, they could be amazing at it and get a scholarship. Instead I'm sitting at home thinking about this.

On My Way

On my way to Parrish Fitness Center, as I was going down Hwy 50, I had the windows down and the radio blasting. I really was not sure what to expect as I pulled into the parking lot because the last time I had been there was when I was 10 for the "Family Fitness Fun Days". As I walked in, the lady sitting at the counter greeted me with a friendly smile and hello. I could not believe how much exercising equipment they had.

• tread mills
• stair steppers
• elliptical
• exercise bikes
  
• free weights
  

As I walked on, the left was full of exercise bikes and on the right, there were stair steppers. All the way in the back corner was the free weights; a place I will probably never adventure to. On down to the right is were they have two different indoor swimming pools. Further on down the hallway to your left is the Children's Center. It is probably one of the coolest places for a kid to play at. They have an indoor jungle gym with monkey bars! Memories came back to me as I was just standing there. All the children playing were having such a good time, chasing after each other playing tag. Made me wish I could be a kid again!