Freedom of Fitness

A series of collaborative courses between the Marlborough Multicultural Centre and Stadium 2000 will bring new ways to get active - with an international twist.

The new agreement includes fitness activities like HIIT, pilates, yoga and swimming alongside the new Multicultural Recreational series of Latin American folk dancing and Bollywood dancing fitness.

Registration is free and open to the public thanks to funding from the Ministry of Social Development.

Stadium 2000’s Health and Fitness Manager Ricky White and Marlborough Multicultural Centre’s Cultural and Sports Events Manager Marcelo Gonzalez found their goals to be a great match and are looking forward to the first classes on October 9.

“Marlborough has such an interesting multicultural community but many of them are here alone and while we host activities during the day, we don’t have activities after work to help with their physical, social and mental health,” says Marcelo.

“New Marlburians already have the skills to be instructors of these courses but didn’t have a venue, so having Ricky, the Stadium and government funding behind it to do this is amazing.”

Marcelo’s goal to include more cultural diversity in Marlborough exercise options matched Ricky’s aim of more exercise options for Marlburians.

The pair see the programme as a win for everyone with new people using the Stadium, engaging in more community-based fitness, and bringing exciting activities from Marlburians to Marlburians

“We’ve always run the HIIT and pilates classes, but the support from the Multicultural Centre and MSD brings completely new ideas to our fitness schedule and adds to our inclusive goals to be an active community space for everyone,” says Ricky.

“We want to break down inclusivity or cultural barriers to doing exercise, and this is a great way to achieve that goal beyond people that can afford memberships or casual visits.”

One hundred and fifty people have already signed up to take part through word-of-mouth promotion, and Ricky says that he and the Stadium 2000 team are fully behind the programme and eager to get started with new people’s fitness journeys.

“Moving to Blenheim for anyone is such a massive culture shock, and so for the first time there is a big change into trying new community activities and the more we can engage people that are new here makes the community better.”

“It also brings something new to Kiwis – we enjoy music and dancing but don’t break into dance spontaneously, but it doesn’t come inherent in our culture so encouraging fitness through dance will bring plenty of positive impacts.”

With encouraging signs and support, Marcelo has plans for expanding the variety of courses.

“This is just the beginning for us to work with the Stadium, and we want to work from Term 1 next year because MSD has big expectations about the programme and will back it into the future if this first one goes well, and we’re open to any new courses,” he says.

“As new migrants and locals both get involved, this programme will make our collective community connections even stronger.”