Victor Barbosa
Staff Writer
Springfield College will hold its annual Fit Fest today, Feb. 21, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Wellness Recreation Complex Field House. The event is a health and wellness festival that typically has around 40 different exhibitors, including student groups both on and off campus. Fit Fest also serves as somewhat of an educational health fair with many different stations, exhibits and activities to participate in.
Mary Kate McMahon and Kristen Brosius are the co-coordinators of the event, and have held that position for the past four years. Unlike some activities on campus, Fit Fest is open to not only the entire college campus, but the Springfield community as well. Overall, McMahon and Brosius are expecting between 500 and 600 participants.
“[Setting up] is mostly us reaching out to not only the college campus, but also to the Springfield community,” Brosius said. “So we’ll take exhibitors who have participated in the past, send out letters to them [and] emails to them, [to] see if they’re interested in returning.”
The festival will include numerous activities to do, enabling people to walk around at their own pace, check out the various exhibits and even get some health tests done. One of the highlights of Fit Fest is usually “King and Queen Fit,” where prizes can be won.
“[King and Queen fit] is a test of your fitness,” McMahon said. “We have an agility test, the med ball toss, and a vertical jump test. That’s King and Queen Fit, and the people who are most fit will get prizes.
“We also have a group exercise sampler. So we’re going to have a yogalates class and then a body pump sampler, just to give people a taste of what the group exercises classes are.”
One student who is looking forward to the event is Tony Pelleteri. The senior Sport Management major works with campus recreation and is excited to go to Fit Fest for the first time.
“I’ve wanted to go for the past three years, but I’ve always had something come up,” Pelleteri said. “But I’ve heard people usually talk favorably about it.
“I’m working in the campus recreation office, so I’ve been around activities like this, but I’ve never really been involved in an activity like this, either working for it or attending it.”
The events are fun and made for everyone, so check out Fit Fest today in the Wellness Recreation Complex Field House from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.