Sculpting a Gym Just for Kids

Two Sisters Concerned About Youth Health Open Pr. George's Exercise Center for Children

It is half-past four in the afternoon, and inside the Youth Visions Fitness Center in Upper Marlboro, the air is heavy with perspiration. The music is loud, and little (and not so little) limbs are pushing, jumping, lifting and stretching in varying degrees of time to the beat.

"Switch!" a voice calls out from the CD, and nearly two dozen kids move to the station on their left: the upright row machine, stationary bike or jogging pad -- gym equipment all designed just for them. It's a kids-only gym.

A light sweat covers the forehead of Marques McCoy, 12, of Upper Marlboro as he lifts the shoulder press high above his head. The sixth-grader, who is 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs more than 200 pounds, has lost 15 pounds since joining the center in August. "It feels like my speed is getting real fast," Marques said, pausing to talk. "I'm proud of myself, [but] I still need to work on it."

"Switch!" yells the voice, and the kids jump to the next machine.

Tonya Manago, a former paralegal, and her sister Keitha Howerton, a social worker and assistant track coach at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, got the idea for Youth Visions three years ago when Manago noticed that her daughter, then 6, was getting a tummy. "DeSha had started putting on some weight, and we had to make sure we could keep that under wraps," Manago said.

An estimated16 percent of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight, three times as many as in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency cites declining participation in school physical education programs and an increase in sedentary activities, such as watching television and playing computer games.

Obesity rates for black children exceed those for white kids, according to the CDC. Overweight children often become overweight adults and have higher rates of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and stroke.

Manago and Howerton had just joined a gym when Manago recalled thinking: "They have gyms opening up everywhere for adults, but they don't have any for kids. Why don't we start a kids-only gym?" They saw the need as particularly acute in Prince George's County, which has a majority black population.

They didn't do anything until fall 2005, after Howerton started a local track club and noticed that a lot of the children had weight issues.

"They had difficulty running. They basically couldn't run halfway around the track," Howerton said. Parents were telling her that the kids weren't interested in sports and that they couldn't find anything during the school year to keep them moving.

"That's when we decided, 'Let's put this together; let's follow through and make this happen,' " Howerton said.

They tapped into their savings, took out loans, maxed out credit cards and refinanced their homes to open the doors in April.