With the Chicago Bears Drumline playing, fitness guru “Body by Jake” Steinfeld issuing a motivational speech, 600 seventh- and eight-graders shouting “DON”T QUIT!” in unison, and many of Elgin’s VIPs looking on, Abbott Middle School in Elgin dedicated its free new fitness center Thursday afternoon.
Abbott was one of just three schools in Illinois that won the free sets of exercise machines, valued at $100,000 per set, from the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils, which Steinfeld heads. He said they are paid for by donations from companies such as Coca-Cola and Nike and from the Anthem Foundation, with no tax money involved.
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“Growing up in Brooklyn, I was a fat kid with a bad stutter,” Steinfeld told the kids. “Then my dad bought me a set of weights and that changed my life.”
He said his dream is to equip every school in America with a similar set of machines to help fight what he called an epidemic of child obesity.
Every year, he said, he picks four states, calls up the governor in each, and asks if the governor will help him solicit applications from schools who want to receive a fitness center. He said Gov. Bruce Rauner, whom he had never met, called him back within 20 minutes and asked “What’s the catch?” but then agreed to help out with the project.
Steinfeld’s organization reviews the applications and awards fitness centers to three schools in each state. So far the project has covered 15 states.
In Illinois, he said, 240 schools submitted application letters and videos. He told the students that Abbott’s staff could have just said, “There are hundreds of schools in Illinois. We’ll never win this.” But it proves that you should never give up before even trying something, he said.
“You’ll never win if you don’t take the shot,” Steinfeld said.
Steinfeld said that when he was the students’ age he was cut from his eighth-grade basketball team. That threw him into a blue funk. But a friend gave him a poem called “Don’t’ Quit” that he said restored his spirits and inspired him to make that his motto as he pursued a career making exercise videos.
Chad Dahlman, Abbott’s physical education teacher, said he joined with Elgin School District U46 Wellness Coordinator Tracey Jakaitis and Abbott math teacher Kim Freesemann to create a video showcasing Abbott’s sports, fitness days and a nutrition/activity campaign that the school has been following for five years called Fuel Up To Play 60. The latter is run by the American Dairy Association and is coordinated at Abbott by Freesemann.
Jakaitis said only two schools in District U46 entered the contest — Abbott and Larsen Middle School.
The other Illinois winners were Drake Elementary School in Chicago and Lincoln Middle School in Rockford.
Consisting of the kind of weight, resistance and cycling machines one might find in an adult fitness center, the equipment was installed in a basement room at the 83-year-old school that once held a shop classroom and most recently was used for storage.
Dahlman said each Abbott P.E. class will use the fitness equipment once a week, in lieu of other types of workouts they now do on that day. Assistant Principal Chris Zugel said late-afternoon or evening hours will be set up during which the parents and siblings of Abbot students also will be allowed to use the gear.
Addressing the students, Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain said that staying fit is “a lifelong fight.” He told how at age 67 he still goes on walks and does strength training, and he said he sees 80-year-olds who walk until they are exhausted.
“When do you start doing that? Today,” Kaptain told the adolescents.