The official announcement from Active RVA

The official announcement has been made and i'm HYPE!

90 Applications & 20 New Warriors

• By Ruthie Morrison, Active RVA
•  August 6, 2014  Fitness Groups, News & Trends

In less than one month, over 90 people submitted applications to become Active RVA Warriors. Today, we’re proud to announce the class.

Together with the Richmond City Health District and Fit To Go, we’re bringing on 20 Richmonders to train them to become professional fitness instructors in the underserved community and “warriors” for health and wellness.

“I get goosebumps thinking about this group,” lead instructor for the program, Rick Martin, said. “We’re going to have a very passionate and skilled group of people we’re training to work in our most vulnerable communities.”

The Active RVA Warriors program leverages three aspects of community fitness essential to transforming Richmond communities. The Program coaches fitness-minded residents to grow a base of trained professionals committed to and capable of teaching fitness in Richmond’s communities with the highest chronic disease rates. It catalyzes personal fitness for the participants who attend free exercise classes with Active RVA Warriors, and it builds in economic sustainability by giving the Active RVA Warriors an opportunity to actually turn their new skills as a Fitness Instructors into a profession.

Throughout the 5 month program, Warriors will learn the foundations of being a health and wellness professional from constructing and delivering an exercise routine, to adapting movements to challenge and accommodate a range of populations, to community organizing and supporting transformational change.

The 20 people accepted into this class of Warriors aren’t the end of the story, however. “Receiving 90 applications is precedent setting,” Director of Active RVA, Townley Goldsmith-Ray said. “Almost every application came from people who are committed to seeing the health of our communities improve, passionate about fitness, and ready to learn and do more to help our Richmond region neighbors become more active. Taking the step to apply shows that all 90 see themselves as community leaders for this issue.”

Physical activity is one of the single biggest predictors of health and longevity. To bring down our rates of chronic disease, this newest class of Warriors will be a leading edge, inspiring and challenging others and taking on new programs and initiatives that make a difference. Active RVA will be recruiting for a new group of Warriors in 2015 and in the years to come to follow in the footsteps of this year’s class.

Congratulations to the 2014 Active RVA Warriors:

Harriet Thompson
Milagritos Flinn
Glynis Boyd
Latisha Gordon
Sue Ann Curran
Cynthia Lewis
Morris Jones
LaShay Garland
Monica Green
Adrienne Quarles-Smith
Ebony Blanton
Alicia Grove
Chirlyne Beauvais
Deirdre Lucas
C’ere Lewis
Mark Taylor
Damacia Johnson
Molly McFadden
Taimani Scott
Michelle Samms
Yawandale Birchett-Thompson