Chamber Holds Ribbon Cutting for New Fitness Court in Newman Park

The City of Sweetwater has partnered with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield and Buzzi Unicem to bring the community a better quality of life in form of the new Fitness Court out at Newman Park.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held to open the free Court to Nolan County residents. “We are here to celebrate this accomplishment. We have a long list of projects that we have in mind. There are many more to come and we are checking them off one-by-one. We are very proud of our partnerships with various entities. I want to thank everyone for coming out.” City Manager David Vela said.

Next up was Miesha Adames, Executive Director of SEED/ MDD. “We would to thank you all for coming out. This was a project that was made possible through a community partnership through our Economic Development corporation. The City of Sweetwater, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Buzzi Unicem. It wouldn’t have been possible without all of these players. Buzzi Unicem, of course, donated the concrete and labor to have it poured and formed up. We were able to secure a grant as part of the National Fitness Campaign for Blue Cross Blue Shield and this is just one of the quality of life projects in Sweetwater where we are trying to improve our livability of those in our community.

It is available to all adults. There’s quite a few workouts and you can scan a QR code.” Next up was Beverly Cokonougher, Director of Customer Service, BCBS

Abilene Service Center.

“I’m with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. It’s an honor to be here today in your community to celebrate our partnership with the City of Sweetwater and the National Fitness Campaign for access to this important Fitness Court. In early 2022, we joined the National Fitness Campaign to commit nearly half a million dollars to bring 20 outdoor fitness courts to communities across Texas.”...

We know that 1 in 2 adults do not get enough exercise and it leads to health conditions such as diabetes and heart disease and we are committed to standing by the members in our communities in sickness and in health and we want to make sure to help them make decisions to live a healthy lifestyle and we feel access to these Fitness Courts really helps. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is very committed to our community stay healthy.”

Michael McHugh, Plant Manager of Buzzi then spoke. “We are so happy to be a part of this project. We are so happy to participate. One of the things that Buzzi has been involved in a very long time and one of the integral pieces of our success is community involvement, not in just money but in deeds as well. We are more than happy to do this. We look forward to more projects in the future.”

In from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was Buzzi Unicem CEO/President of Buzzi ,Massimo Toso then spoke. “I am very, very happy to be here in Sweetwater. We have one of best cement plants here in Maryneal and last year they broke a record in production of cement. They opened 6 years ago. We invested more than $350 million in the new plant and that shows our commitment to this area. We want to be a part of this community and to be a good partner with the community.”

Stacy Boil, owner of Faith Fitness, spoke about health and well-being.

“There are a couple of reasons that I’m esxcited to be here today. One being, tt’s amazing to see all of the steps to make Sweetwater a little bit sweeter than it was yesterday. Second is because fitness is so important to me personally. Physical activity is so important is that it is directly connected to our health. When you’re doing physical activity and physical fitness, it helps with everything from mental health, managing our weight and helping to reduce the risk of disease and also strengthening our muscles and our bones. Improving the quality of life is something that is directly connected to physical fitness. Now that Sweetwater has another way that our citizens can come and do workouts for only 45 seconds for each station that will take them less than 15 minutes to do, anywhere from two to three times a week, it is incredibly exciting for our town. Because physical fitness is so important, it the whole reason why I said yes to Miesha and come up here and do a demonstration and show you how awesome this Fitness Court can be. My hope ios that Sweetwater utilizes this Fitness Court and sets goals for their fitness and makes their health a priority.”

The ceremonial ribbon cutting then took place and a demonstration of the Court was given by a representative from the Police Department and the Fire Department, Detective Danny Heine and Fireman Tad Baird, respectively.

It is set up from intermediate to advanced. There are seven stations. The Fitness Court is a full body circuit training center, comprised of 7 movement zones. There is a section to work on one’s core, to do squats, to do push ups, lunges, pull ups and ability zone as well as one for bends. 7 movements in 7 minutes. Each zone offers hundreds of exercises and trains different parts of the body through functional movement patterns. Zone rotations spending 45 seconds of exercise and 15 seconds of rest at each zone for a 7 minute full body workout. The Fitness Court app can also be downloaded for a library of hundred of exercises and workouts to get started.