PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — As part of The Aroostook Medical Center’s new winter edition of the Fit & Fun series, the hospital has been offering opportunities for community members to take part in free or low-cost activities that encourage being active and perhaps trying new things.
Free skate days and snowshoe hikes have been held with great success, and this weekend brings another opportunity for both of these programs. The second in a series of snowshoe hikes will be held Saturday, Feb. 20, at Aroostook State Park, while another free skate day is planned at The Forum on Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016.
The hike takes place at 9:30 a.m., just prior to the park’s Take It Outside Winter Family Fun Day. The cost of the snowshoeing is free, but there is a small fee to enter the park. Snowshoes will be available in both adult and youth sizes. The hike will be led by TAMC’s Linda Menard and Taryn Everett.
“Our first hike was around the Mantle Lake trails. We had people join us who were trying snowshoeing out for the first time, as well as others who were more experienced but wanted to enjoy a good group hike,” said Menard. “The trails at Aroostook State Park will be just a little more challenging, but with the new snow we’ve gotten, I’m expecting it to be a great hike.”
The last hike in the series will take place on Saturday, March 5, at the Nordic Heritage Center. For that hike, only a limited number of adult snowshoes will be available for a small rental fee of $2 per person. To register for the hike or for more information, contact Menard at 768-4172 or lmenard@tamc.org.
Sunday at The Forum, there will be free skating from 1-3 p.m. The first session in January had so many attending that there were, unfortunately, some access issues. However, these issues will be mitigated this time around, according to Jamie Guerrette, TAMC community engagement specialist and organizer of the event.
“We hadn’t anticipated such a big response the first time we offered this, and we ran into some issues regarding how many people could actually be let into the building, and whether or not spectators were a part of that count. It created a bottleneck at the beginning of the afternoon and some folks were not able to get in. Luckily by midway through the event, things balanced out and more people were able to come in and skate,” explained Guerrette.
This time around, the number of skaters will be limited to 200 at any time. This number does not include spectators, who are welcome to come watch family members skate, Guerrette said.
“We’re excited that we were able to up the numbers a little with The Forum and that we will be able to designate between skaters and spectators,” she saId. “I think this will alleviate most of the issues we had last time. People will be given a skater or spectator ticket when they enter, so we know when we hit our cap on skaters. When skaters leave, they will turn their tickets back in so we can let in more.
“What we found last time was that there were a lot of young skaters who were trying out being on the ice for the first time. They had a ball, but were then ready to leave within a half an hour,” Guerrette added.
There is no cost for admission or skate rentals during the event, courtesy of TAMC. Skates will be available in children’s and adult sizes as long as supplies last.
A full listing of winter Fit & Fun activities is on TAMC’s website, www.tamc.org. To add an event to the schedule, contact Guerrette at jguerrette@tamc.org or (207) 768-4008.
“We are committed to helping people in our community be healthier. What better way than to give them a free introduction of some of the great activities available in our community? Most of these activities are fairly low cost, so if it is something they find they enjoy, they can continue to do it on their own,” said Guerrette.
TAMC’s ultimate goal for the Fit & Fun series is to help decrease both childhood obesity and the number of adults with cardiovascular disease risk factors.
