Active Living Program News
Spotlight on The Four Seasons Association
A question frequently asked by health club owners is “How can we make Active Living Every Day and Healthy Eating Every Day work for our club?” Here is a great example of a club that saw the value of offering behavior change programs and worked with existing worksite contacts to create a successful offering. We recently asked Kelley Wickenhauser, program manager at the Four Seasons Association (www.4seasons-club.com) in Bloomington, Illinois, to tell us about their experience with Active Living Every Day (ALED) and Healthy Eating Every Day (HEED).
ALP: Tell us about the Four Seasons Association and your professional background.
Kelley: Four Seasons is a not-for-profit health club with approximately 19,000 members—men, women, and children. We have two facilities. FSI is our family facility and includes two pools, a baby pool, hot tub, four racquetball courts, multiple indoor basketball courts, indoor track, fitness center and cardio room, child care center, aerobics studio, karate studio, family changing rooms, and locker rooms equipped with a dry sauna. FSII is our adults-only (16 years and older) facility and includes a large cardio area with more than 80 pieces of cardio equipment, a large fitness center, a stretching and abs area, a private circuit area, state-of-the-art Spinning studio, aerobics studio, group strength studio, Pilates studio (with Reformers and towers plus a Pilates combo chair), child care center, juice bar, personal training studio, metabolic testing studio, steam rooms in each locker room, and a community room for our members to host meetings. (Whew!)
I come from a physical therapy background. For 15 years I’ve been certified by the American Council on Exercise for group fitness and personal training. I have been with Four Seasons for 12 years.
ALP: How did you hear about Active Living Every Day? What about this program and Healthy Eating Every Day interested you?
Kelley: Actually, the first I’d heard of it was when you visited me in the club. Our general manager had received some information and wanted us to find out more. I was sold on it the first time it was presented to me! The principles, concepts, and mission for each of the programs were very similar to Four Seasons’ as well as mine (personally) and are very close to my heart. It’s all about helping people progress in life to become healthier and happier in the long term.
ALP: Where do you offer classes?
Kelley: In the past, we have offered the ALED class at Country Insurance and Financial Services for their employees and at two locations for State Farm employees. We currently have two HEED classes going at State Farm. We do all of their classes at their worksite during their lunch hour. We also offer a HEED class here at FSII in our Community Room on Monday evenings.
ALP: How do Active Living Every Day and Healthy Eating Every Day programs fit into your overall programming? Have they helped to fulfill community outreach or membership goals?
Kelley: ALED and HEED fit into our overall programming because they are designed for the people in the community who are not in the health club and don’t want to be in a health club. We have a lot of programs within the club for our members who regularly use the club, but the ALED and HEED programs are perfect for those who have been told by their doctors that they must change their lifestyle if they want to live longer and be healthier but lack the motivation or knowledge to do so.
These programs absolutely have helped us fulfill community outreach! We are helping people make healthier choices, both physically and emotionally, at their own pace. Therefore, they have better personal and working relationships, which in turn help them live more happily and healthfully. We know this attitude is contagious.
Have the programs helped us reach membership goals? I can tell you this: When and if these people decide to step into a health club, chances are they will choose ours because, throughout the 20 weeks of each program, they have already established a relationship with someone they trust.
ALP: What do participants say about the programs?
Kelley: At the end of one of our ALED classes, the host company sent out a survey. They got a 100% response rate and found that everyone was pleased, would recommend the program to someone, and would do it all over again if it was offered. So we offered the HEED program to the same group, at a discount for already completing the ALED program. Guess what—we have our group back together again for 20 more weeks!
ALP: What do you get out of these programs? Other than the formal facilitator training you received, do you think you’ve learned anything—either from the content of these programs or as a result of leading classes—that you can use in other areas of your personal or professional life?
Kelley: Well, funny you should ask that. I went in this with the mind-set of helping others with the program. As it turns out, the people in the program helped me just as much! Each week seemed like a baby step, but, as I reflected over their total progress, I could see the changes by leaps and bounds. By teaching the ALED class, I saw proof that the program really works. Also, using the training from the ALED program, I am able to use some of the communication techniques to solve some difficult situations with my staff. And, personally, I have become more compassionate toward others, and my passion to reach out and help others with these programs has been the driving force in my daily life.
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