Hub Staff

An opportunity to help youth get active will take place through a new after-school drop in program, Fun'n' Fit, held at Lakeshore Recreation beginning October 3 through to November 30.

According to PartipACTION, high school students in Canada spend an average of 8.2 hours of screen-based sedentary behaviour every day, with only 9 percent of Canadian kids ages 5 to 17 receiving the 60 minutes of heart-pumping activity they need each day.

Lakeshore staff members Jeff Virgo, who will host Grades 7 to 9 boys on Wednesdays and Karen Fehr, who will welcome Grades 7 to 9 girls on Tuesdays and Grades 10 to 12 girls on Thursdays, want to offer a chance for youth to connect in healthy ways while exploring fun and interactive forms of exercise. “I think there is a need for it, especially for a safe environment,” said Fehr September 14.

“A lot of kids have confidence issues or self-esteem issues and it’s difficult for them to deal with it in a school environment or in any environment that’s surrounded by a lot of people or a lot of other kids. Here it will be done privately in confidentially. They’ll be with a group of probably similar minded kids. So it’s not just for being active, they may make new friends,” said Fehr.

The program will have the youthful participants take part in activities from active games, to aerobic activity to resistance training with a variety of equipment utilized in the banquet hall, squash and spin rooms.

The private program is open to all fitness levels, will take place between 4 and 5 p.m. for a $2 drop in fee per drop in, and requires a liability form to be signed by a parent.