The Wellness Club
A concept everyone can get behind
By Dean Connley
Photos: Victoria Hinchey
A healthy, active community is a common goal for any recreation department or municipality. By most accounts, the communities surrounding Geneva Lake, Wis., are active and thriving. In summer, people hike the shore path around the lake, swim at one of the beautiful beaches, run in local marathons, participate in rec-sports leagues, etc. The summers are a busy time with lots of outdoor activities and events to keep everyone busy, but what about the winters?
As winter approaches, the seasonal residents retreat to their big-city communities, and the busy summer towns turn into more traditional “small towns in the country.” It can be a great change of pace for some, but also a struggle to remain active for others. The struggle to encourage adults and even older adults to participate in most winter activities led to the creation of a free Wellness Club to promote fitness classes and engage the community during a slow time of the year.
The Idea
The Wellness Club started as most program ideas do—talking about different segments of the community and reaching out to those not currently engaged in recreation programs. As at any rec center, fitness classes experience a surge around the New Year as most everyone chases their resolution to get healthy. While it’s one thing to get lots of people through the door, it’s quite another to hang onto them. This is where the Wellness Club was born.
The concept was simple: register for free and obtain weekly punch cards. Each punch card had each fitness and nutrition class offered for the week. Once one completed a class or a workout, the instructor or supervisor would punch the card using a heart-shaped punch. At the end of each week, participants turned in their card and claimed prizes from the recreation office. Every three punches earned the next prize. This eight-week program ran from the beginning of January to the beginning of March. With an outline for the program, the next step was to seek out experts in the field.
Partnerships
Partnering with a local healthcare provider was essential because we wanted to give the program legitimacy. Anyone can give health-and-wellness advice, but it has more of an impact when coming from a physician. A meeting was set up with the administration and community-outreach representatives from Aurora Health Care. With several clinics and hospitals in the county, Aurora definitely had brand recognition and familiarity among community members. After pitching the idea for the free program, everyone was on board. Aurora provided weekly health tips with a local physician signing off on the bottom of each health-tip sheet, which gave participants reliable information from a doctor located near the recreation center. The company also set up an evening when two staff members gave free blood-pressure, BMI, and bone-density screenings.
For the healthcare provider, it was an easy decision to partner on the program. We weren’t asking for money; we simply wanted to provide the best information and resources to community members. Knowing I most likely would not receive a donation, I approached things differently with the Wellness Club. Securing a partnership opened the door for support down the road. As we started to acquire items to use as incentive prizes, Aurora Health Care was quick to donate reusable water bottles with their logo. With the layout of the program and a local healthcare partner, it was time to get local businesses onboard.
Creating a marketing piece is very helpful when talking to business owners. They want to know what’s needed, what it will be used for, how they will get exposure, and how they will be recognized. Having all of this spelled out clearly on a small flyer makes things easy for both the person seeking the donation as well as for the business owner who is considering donating goods or services. In exchange for donating to the Wellness Club, the company’s logo was printed on the back of the club shirt, as well as on all emails, posters, and digital marketing. Most of the donations were for local goods that kept people spending money in the community while also fitting the theme of health and wellness. We didn’t have to use any fast-food chains or similar businesses. We secured donations from a local coffee shop, bank, smoothie shop, grocery store, sandwich chain, kayak rental, walking tour, and fine-arts foundation.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges was securing funds to order T-shirts and additional incentive prizes for participants. A major goal was to make sure the program was free for the community. To do that, we needed a monetary donation, so we approached the local bank. To set the stage and show that the program was already getting support, we explained we had a local healthcare provider and eight other local businesses on board. This bank prides itself on being a community bank, so this aligned well with its image.
The downside of securing a monetary donation last is most of these donations need to be submitted for approval and oftentimes can take several weeks to get a response. And then it might be a few more weeks until a check is in the mail. This can make things tough, especially when the program being offered is in its first year. This caused a few headaches, but in the end, that crucial donation was needed to run the program.
Another challenge was getting the word out to as many people as possible. Although each resident is mailed a copy of the recreation activity guide, we knew many older adults were not reading it. Posters were created and distributed at banks, churches, grocery stores, coffee shops, etc. There was also a big presence at the community fitness center where people could sign up for the program as well as turn in their punch cards and redeem prizes. But at the end of the day, one of the best promotions was still word of mouth.
Community Response
Once the word was out about the Wellness Club, registrations started flowing in. We were shocked at how motivated people were to earn a free cup of coffee or a six-inch sandwich. Never underestimate the power of free prizes!
Participation also spiked during the Wellness Club program. While it is difficult to judge whether an attendance spike is due to the New Year, one program made it obvious the Wellness Club was impacting attendance. A walking club started with a few older adults walking the halls of the high school during the day. As more people participated in the Wellness Club, they also joined the walking group. Word of mouth really helped bring in more participants. As they told their friends, more and more older adults showed up. Once one or two walkers earned the free T-shirt, they all wanted one. Before I knew it several older adults in matching T-shirts were walking the halls twice a week. The Wellness Club helped bring together a group of people who had traditionally been a challenge to serve.
The Wellness Club is now several years in, and participation continues to grow. In addition to community members, teachers, police officers, firefighters, and employees from local businesses are also participating. More businesses want to donate and become involved after seeing such a positive response. Community wellness truly is a concept that everyone can get behind.
Dean Connley, CPRP, is a Program Coordinator with Big Foot Recreation District. Reach him at dconnley@bigfoot.k12.wi.us.