Island City Health and Fitness Care about “Challenge” Participants

By BOB KECSKEMETY

“It was a great chance to give back to the community,” said Reece Darham owner of Island City Health and Fitness, home of the 2011 Brian Neal Fitness Challenge in which Darham donates the use of the gym. “When I fully understood the concept of it, I thought it was an excellent idea. And the plan to have a non-profit for people in need and who want to get fit and healthy made a lot of sense to me. I thought it was a great idea, a great concept.” Darham has owned Island City Health and Fitness since October 2008.

The Brian Neal Fitness Challenge is a boot camp style workout session limited to 50 participants in which there are three 1- hour workout sessions a week for 12 weeks. There is no cost to join the Challenge. Working along side Neal is personal trainer Melissa Binkley who is also Director of Fitness at Island City Health and Fitness where she works continuously with the fitness staff and Certified Personal Trainers.

“I think it’s necessary, even for people that don’t have money or can’t necessarily afford a trainer, still have access to fitness because fitness is for everybody,” said Binkley.

“She is wonderful, I absolutely adore Melissa,” says Darham. “She has such a burst of energy. She’s an absolutely pleasure and a true professional and incredibly knowledgeable and I’m so glad she’s part of the team.” Binkley is a dedicated fitness professional with a degree from Ohio State University and has several national certifications. She has been inspiring healthy living and fitness for most of her life. She is a National NPC Figure Competitor and fitness model and has traveled the country competing and being an ambassador for fitness. Binkley is also an avid athlete and loves all sports and is featured on RxMuscle.com, MuscularDevelopment.com and BodTv.

Binkley has worked with clients ranging in age from 8 to 80, planning individualized programs for each of her clients based on their current level of fitness, their health needs and goals. She believes children are the next step to the fitness revolution and has worked with organizations such as HeroUSA.org to establish fitness programs for children. She is also SilverFit-certified and has taught classes to senior citizens.

“[Brian Neal] came to Reese and talked to him about using the facilities as part of the program. Reese introduced me to him and they told me about how it was going to be non-profit and how they wanted to help people and were going to make it a free. I’ve always done volunteer work, helping vets and older people — anything that is fitness-related that helped people and it was something that was close to my heart. I thought it was a wonderful concept so I was really happy to help with it and do anything I could to help him and give him some of my expertise. After meeting the people the very first time I decided it was an amazing project and I’m really happy to be working with them.

“I think Brian is a big teddy bear,” said Binkley. “He is really a nice guy he’s a lot of fun and he knows what he’s talking about and he’s really driven. I think he’s got a great idea and it will be a big help to our community.”

Binkley went on to say that obesity in America is at crisis levels and people need access to health information. She said that for the general population, the Challenge is such a necessity to get the community into a healthy lifestyle and it’s going to make a difference for generations to come. She said that America has the highest obesity rates in the world and that by allowing people to see a healthy way to live and do things in a different way, it’s going to be a force that’s going to spread.

Binkley herself practices a holistic lifestyle and believes nutrition is a vital part of a healthy life. She is currently working towards expanding her field in holistic nutrition and health. Binkley also enjoys being part of the Brian Neal Fitness Challenge. “The [participants] are amazing and they all have wonderful stories. We have a cancer survivor; we have some that have weighed over 300 pounds who have lost weight. They all have a good fire to them and are all really excited. It’s really nice to work with people that really want to be here because, a lot of time, you get people that don’t always really enjoy what they are doing or they really don’t want to learn to work for change. And everybody in this program is really on fire about what they are doing and they have a passion about it and that’s really exciting.”

Bob Kecskemety is the News Editor of the Florida Agenda. Bob can be readed at editor@FloridaAgenda.com