New routines

Businesses across the county have been impacted in one way or another by the coronavirus pandemic.

They may be deemed essential, but the volume of sales may have decreased drastically. For some, there may not be enough work to go around, so employees may be laid off or furloughed.

Non-essential businesses, such as the three fitness centers in Jay County, are affected in different ways.

They’re forced to be creative in finding ways to interact with their clientele, or they’re suddenly finding more time for improvements while they weather the closure.

“We’re kind of crazy limited because we can’t do anything,” said Eleathia Harding, who along with husband Darrin own Sculpt Fitness, 120 E. Commerce St., Dunkirk. “We’ve been trying to make improvements without spending money.”

The Hardings, for example, have had time to spruce up the front entrance of the gym, adding a fresh coat of paint and a wall decal. They purchased LED lights to replace the fluorescent bulbs.

“We didn’t have any time to do this kind of stuff,” Darrin said.



Motivation to train

In times we’re forced to be at home, routines get changed and finding motivation to stay atop diet and workout programs can be challenging.

Mitch Waters, one of three personal trainers at Jay Community Center, 115 E. Water St., Portland, had his schedule disrupted.

“I wouldn’t say I was lazy, but I was doing house projects and wasn’t doing any physical fitness,” he said. “I’ve gotten a lot of my projects done, so I’ve been concentrating on cleaning up my diet and physical stuff.”

That led the Hartford City resident and 2002 Jay County High School graduate to start leading training sessions through Zoom.

He had about a half dozen participants in each of his first three sessions, April 7 through 9. Friday he had 15 tune in.

Using Zoom for workouts was nothing new for him; as coach of the Blackford girls basketball team, he was using it to interact with his players.

Now it’s evolved into a way for him to keep in touch with his clients while staying physically active too.

“It’s being a good motivator personally because I’m held accountable,” he said. “I may not want to do it but I’m going to do it because it’ll push me to stay in shape.”

The Hardings have continued their personal training sessions through FaceTime. They’ve also relied heavily on their Facebook group — Sculpt Fitness Motivation — so the members can share meal ideas and ways to stay active during Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home order.

“It’s been way more active than it has been before,” Eleathia Harding said.

Patriot Fitness, located at 105 N. Meridian St., Portland, has also been posting workouts on its Facebook page.



Members

All three gyms in Jay County have decided to alter the memberships of their client base.

Kyle Cook, executive director of JCC, said its memberships will be extended, but it is still billing its corporate partners. Most of the fitness center members pay on a yearly basis, so there is a limited amount of monthly fees to collect.

The Patriot Fitness Facebook page stated memberships will be extended by the total number of days the gym is closed.

It also said any monthly payments the gym would normally collect will not be deducted until the end of each member’s contract.

Sculpt Fitness is offering the same service.

All three gyms closed March 24 because of Holcomb’s order.

“It’s not our fault that we’re closed down, but it’s not their fault either,” Darrin said.

Eleathia added: “We understand it’s affecting everybody so we’re trying to take the hit for everybody.”

She also said some of Sculpt’s clients have chosen not to extend their membership based on the closure of the gym, and others have paid ahead of time for another year just to help out the business financially.

“We definitely want people to know we appreciate the support we’ve gotten,” Eleathia said. “We’re going to try our best to be something awesome to come back to.”

No revenue

About 80% of the revenue for Jay Community Center comes by way of its programming, such as soccer and flag football in the spring, T-ball in the summer and soccer in the fall.

For example, if the center has 200 children in its soccer league at a cost of $50 per child, it brings in $10,000. T-ball is about $5,000 and football is roughly $2,500, Cook said. Sponsorships total about another $3,500.

“When we don’t have programming, we just have to wait,” Cook said. “If we have to cancel a sport, we’ll offer a voucher.

On Monday, the community center announced the cancelation of spring traveling soccer. Other sports have been postponed with hopes of getting them completed a little later than normal.

The Hardings face a different problem. The building that housings their gym is also home to Eleathia’s hair salon, another business deemed non-essential. With both the gym and salon forced to close, they’re not able to serve any of their customer base.

“No income, but all the bills,” Darrin said.

Sculpt Fitness opened March 2, 2019, and has seen its membership skyrocket. But without a revenue stream, the owners are unsure how long they can hold out.

“I hope that day never comes,” Darrin said. “I try not to think about it. We’re going to be hurting if it gets extended out.”