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Wellness Center is a gift

2 min read

As I write this, there are 50 to 100 of our fellow citizens at the Cameron Wellness Center going about the business of being well. In an hour or so, that crew of “athletes” will be replaced by another bunch of folks riding bikes, lifting weights, running, walking, swimming, dribbling and shooting, sweating, and, when they are finished, feeling good about themselves.

Wellness, the state of being or feeling healthy and fulfilled, is a concept that I have contemplated many times in my life. Shouldn’t we all feel good about ourselves – that we are as physically fit as our age and God-given infirmities and capabilities allow?

A couple of times a week, I make it a point to go to the Cameron Wellness Center, a place I like to call “the gym,” to assure myself that I am pushing back against the aging process and, as the saying goes, “taking care of myself.” The folks that you see there are amazing to me, not necessarily for their athletic prowess but for their diversity.

At times you feel like you are at a senior center as you watch a pool full of seventysomethings following an instructor’s lead and jumping up and down or swaying to and fro. You can also see a group of men playing a hotly contested basketball game. In an adjoining room are 10 or 20 folks pedaling away on bikes that never go anywhere, as they take commands from a trainer pumping away just as hard.

In a less organized fashion, you find individuals, couples, and small groups challenging themselves on machines, treadmills, or the track. Almost without exception, they are trying to do more today than they did yesterday or last week. Although the weight lifters tend to be younger and buffer, there are always a couple of exceptions to that rule.

I write today to tip my hat to Wilfred “Pete” Cameron who, 15 years ago, out of the goodness of his heart, donated a significant amount of money to make it all happen. How many lives have been changed by that act of kindness? Think of all the pounds lost, muscles toned, friendships made, marriages strengthened, lives extended, personal records broken, and rehabilitations completed. It is an amazing gift.

Bracken Burns

Washington

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