You see the commercials, get the random social media posts, and have images of fitness in your face constantly, especially after the holidays. “Join our gym, pay for our wellness plan, be happy and fit.” But what happens when you want to be active, but nothing you see meets your needs, or you feel excluded?
During the fall of his senior year at Penn State in 2019, Jacob Corey saw a gap between fitness and wellness opportunities and access for those with intellectual disabilities. Sure, there were fitness centers, classes, and wellness information, but there was a lack of access for those needing more adapted formats. That’s when Corey decided to do something: He started the process to create FitLink, an inclusive wellness community geared toward individuals with intellectual disabilities and their loved ones.
FitLink offers free weekly adapted group fitness classes (currently online) for all ages and abilities, including dance, yoga, build-your-own workouts, and more; wellness seminars; and the opportunity for people to connect, something that is lacking for so many during the time of COVID.
“We want to close that gap on health equity because right now there are a ton of health options, but a lot of them are not as inclusive as they could be to every person with a disability; so this is our way of trying to increase inclusivity to help promotion and community-based health within the community for those with intellectual disabilities,” says Corey, 23.
After thinking of the initial idea, Corey – who graduated from Penn State in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and is now a doctoral student at the University of Delaware – connected with Alexis “Lexi” Baublitz, now a senior at Penn State majoring in kinesiology.
“I never worked with this population before, so I thought I’d just put myself out there and go out of my comfort zone,” says Baublitz, 23, of York. “I love to help people … so when Jacob came to me, I said, ‘Of course, I’d love to try something new.’”
The two began work at the end of 2019 and asked Dr. Jonna Belanger, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Penn State and a National Paralympic Athletics Classifier, to help in creating what has become FitLink. Belanger’s research interests have been focused on increasing sport opportunities for youth with disabilities within interscholastic sports.
“I thought this could give Penn State students an opportunity to work with those with disabilities and help them program classes for them,” Corey says. “My thinking was if we are graduating students who are supposed to be experts and that is what their degree is in, if they didn’t have any experience with working with people with different disabilities, we can’t expect them to attempt to make any changes in the health equity we have right now across the United States, because they don’t have the confidence or experience to even know that’s an issue. It’s one of those things where ignorance is bliss.”
Once the three discussed the mission of FitLink, they were able to connect easily to LifeLink at Penn State, which provides State College Area School District special-needs students ages 18 to 21 an opportunity to interact with students their own age in an environment that is socially and academically conducive to continued growth.
The first FitLink class was held mid-January 2020; all classes were in-person before the first round of COVID shutdowns.
“When everything moved online, we wondered if this was something we could continue doing and wondered how to do adaptive fitness online,” Corey says. “We took one week off to figure things out and honestly, while being online had its drawbacks, we were able to get a lot more students to come (now a dedicated group of 10 or so students). Going online makes you as an instructor rethink how you are actually instructing.”
Big plans ahead
In spring 2021, classes will be Wednesday and Thursday from 4-5 p.m. People can register online at happyvalleyfitlink.wixsite.com/happyvalleyfitlink, where they can also read more about FitLink and see various options.
Belanger says she is proud of her students and the desire to provide a needed service, and indicates big plans for FitLink moving forward.
“We really want it to be a community program and an interaction with that town and gown,” she says. “We want it community-based and community-driven. We plan to expand outside the State College area and in fall hope to have a facility and be able to have a hybrid of in-person and online offerings.”
Belanger describes central Pennsylvania as a “black hole” for services related to fitness, sport, or recreation for individuals with disabilities.
“It’s just there’s minimal stuff happening even pre-pandemic, so I can’t imagine what’s going to happen post-pandemic and what has been lost from a year of not being able to interact or fundraise and all of that,” she says. “Hopefully [FitLink] can be a shining spot in the middle of Pennsylvania.”
Plans also include making FitLink a nonprofit organization, and addressing physical disabilities and connecting with visual impairment and hard-of-hearing and Deaf communities.
“The big thing I talk with my students about is language and how you talk to a person and what does disability itself mean and help them move outside of this concept of other,” Belanger says. “They are a person. We are people just like them, just some of us do things differently. It’s just removing that box. I hope FitLink breaks down those barriers – that’s our hope.”
When members are asked what they enjoy about FitLink, it’s difficult to choose just one thing.
“We all want to be in FitLink because we all want to get in shape and we like doing exercises,” says Lexi Albert. “It has been so much fun. We even have dance parties there.”
Albert says her favorite part of FitLink is spending time with friends – and she especially enjoys days when they get to do yoga poses, in particular child’s pose.
Christopher Nguyen smiles big as he describes his favorite workouts.
“We get to do pushups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, and more,” he says.
Matthew Biek enjoys butterfly poses and says if he had to describe FitLink to someone, he would emphasize one word: fun.
“I’d describe it as working out with your friends,” he says.
For more information on FitLink, visit happyvalleyfitlink.wixsite.com/happyvalleyfitlink.
This story appears in the March 2021 issue of Town&Gown
Jennifer Pencek is a freelance writer based in State College and director of the Office for the Prevention of Interpersonal Violence at Juniata College.
