Boys and Girls Club members take advantage of free Zumba classes
(BRIAN WOlFER/Special to the Standard-Examiner) Chandra Hoyt pulls kids up front and has them help teach a Zumba class at the Hope Community Center. Boys and Girls Club members and some parents participated in the classes.
(BRIAN WOlFER/Special to the Standard-Examiner) A group of students learn a Zumba routine during a free class offered to Boys and Girls Club members.
(BRIAN WOlFER/Special to the Standard-Examiner) Dr Cleo greets the children before they start the class.
The mascot Dr cleo greets all the children before they start the Zumba class. In Roy at the Boys and Girls Club of Weber-Davis, On March 19, 2013 (Brian Wolfer Special to the STANDARD-EXAMINER)
ROY — Boys and Girls Club members excitedly trickled into the gymnasium at the Hope Community Center on a recent Tuesday evening, chatting and high-fiving. But as the music started to roar, things got serious and they got their Zumba on.
The elementary-to teen-aged Boys and Girls Club members, along with some parents were participating in free Zumba classes, offered twice a week for four weeks at the center.
Adam Grimaldo is community outreach specialist for Molina Healthcare. He has been impressed with the enthusiasm of the students, parents and the teacher. Molina Healthcare is a national healthcare company, based in Murray. Grimaldo has worked with the Salt Lake chapter of the Boys and Girls Club and has started working with the Weber/Davis chapter as well.
“We are trying to help kids understand obesity,” Grimaldo said. He has been working with Weber/Davis director Kyle Smith. Smith has also loved watching his students do the Zumba.
He has about 140 kids daily at the Hope Center just for the Boys and Girls Club, but invited the students from Ogden and the Roy teen program to the Zumba classes. They have had between 50 and 100 at the classes.
“It’s free so we really want to get everyone involved including the parents,” Smith said.
The two sent out flyers to get the word out. It took some work, but Grimaldo found an instructor, Chandra Hoyt, and she has loved working with the kids. She lives on Hill Air Force Base and learned to Zumba from her husband who learned to Zumba and taught it to soldiers while he was deployed to the Middle East a couple of years ago.
She loves teaching and has learned to teach it a little differently for kids. “It’s kind of a sexy exercise and you can’t really teach that to kids, so we have done some fun and different things,” she said.
During the class she has special helpers come out and stand by her to help her teach. She likes to do that because it gives the kids some extra confidence.
“It really breaks the ice,” she said. She has been impressed with how quickly the kids have caught on to the routines.
Grimaldo plans to add some more Zumba units at the center. He has been surprised with the program’s success.
“It’s been successful in the sense that the kids are actually participating and in reality are really good,” he said.
Margo Jessen has five children in the club and started doing the Zumba when she came to pick up her kids.
“I was in heels and a skirt and they made me do it,” she said of her daughters. Her son, Lorenzo, had a form of scoliosis and has enjoyed doing the Zumba. “He has always been a dancer and this has been so good for him,” she said as she watched him run around to get warmed up.
For more information about the Boys and Girls Club and what it offers, call 801-627-2071.