Carthage Family Fitness earns second Tracy Family grant

Christmas has come a little early for Carthage Family Fitness in the form of a $10,000 grant from the Tracy Family Foundation. Director Maxine Trapp couldn't be more thrilled.

“We have worked really hard this year to meet the challenge given to us by the Tracy Family,” said Trapp. “We met our deadline early.”

Carthage Family Fitness had applied for a grant from the Tracy Family Foundation a year ago. At the time of the grant application, the fitness center was separating from Hoerner YMCA of Keokuk, Iowa. A grant was needed to help purchase the equipment at the center owned by the Keokuk YMCA.

“When we became part of the Carthage Park District in January of this year we rewrote our grant application and submitted it,” explained Carrie Carroll, CFF board president. “We reworked our budget and membership goals for the year.”

Carthage Family Fitness received the $10,000 equipment grant in the spring and now own all of the equipment in the center. At the time the money was received it also came with a challenge.

“We met with Jean Buckley of the Tracy Family Foundation, and she was amazed at the number of people our center serves,” said Carroll. “She evidently saw the need in the area for us to continue to offer our many programs. If we met our fundraising and membership goals for the year, Tracy Family Foundation would grant us another $10,000.”

The fundraising and membership goals for 2007 for Carthage Family Fitness totaled more than $50,000 and needed to be met by Dec. 31 in order to receive the grant.

“I was hired in September and immediately began working on ways to increase the membership at CFF,” said Trapp. “A lot of people were using our facility but were not members. We began a membership drive in November and are offering three-month memberships for the holidays.”

CFF is offering a corporate fitness membership program and have had several businesses purchase memberships for their employees.

The fitness center also launched a new “Totally Awesome Loser” program to promote weight loss and becoming healthier in the new year.

The program runs for three months concluding the end of January.

Other programs offered at CFF include: aerobics, senior exercise, circuit training, personal training, Tang Soo Do, After-School Program, flag football, soccer, volleyball, basketball, baseball, t-ball, softball, wrestling and water aerobics.

Carthage Park Board President Christopher Goetz said that he was pleased at the success of the center.

“We are behind Carthage Family Fitness and want it to succeed,” said Goetz. “We are extremely proud of Maxine and our other employees in meeting these goals.”

According to Goetz, CFF will look at purchasing new fitness equipment for its weight room with the grant.

The challenge grant application was submitted on Dec. 5, and notification was received from Jean Buckley of Tracy Family Foundation on Dec. 6.