As school lets out for the summer today, the students at Prince Rupert Middle School (PRMS) said goodbye to a dingy old workout room with tattered mats, worn-out equipment and workout machines half of which didn’t even work anymore.
When the kids return in the fall, however, it will be to a shiny new space with a wider variety of all-new equipment courtesy of Prince Rupert Safeway.
Last fall, the school applied to the grocery store’s community grant program for health initiatives and found out this spring they had $5,000 to revamp the workout room. The equipment arrived a couple of weeks ago.
Navjot Chahal attended the school before it was reconfigured from Prince Rupert Secondary to Prince Rupert Middle School. He is now the 2nd assistant manager at Safeway.
He explained that the company really hopes revitalizing the workout room will inspire kids to use it and improve their fitness.
“If it’s for the kids, it’s an easy decision to make,” Chahal said.
PRMS principal Mike McDowell was behind the application. He said the old workout room was not very inviting.
“To be very honest, it was in pretty sad shape,” he said.
“This will actually give the kids an opportunity to use a lot more types of equipment and give them some more options to do it.”
School maintenance staff will be installing the new stuff over the summer in time for the new school year in September McDowell said.
thom.barker@blackpress.ca
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