Saranac CSD gifted state-of-the-art fitness center

The Saranac Central School District officially opened a $100,000 fitness center today, gifted to the district by fitness icon Jake Steinfeld and the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils.

Steinfeld, who helped create personal fitness training industry four decades ago with Body by Jake, is also an actor, entrepreneur, best-selling author and advocate for childhood fitness. He founded the National Foundation for Governors’ Fitness Councils 13 years ago, and through it as his DON’T QUIT! Campaign, he has worked with governors around the country to gift fitness centers to three schools in every state in the U.S.

The center was open during a raucous celebration on Friday afternoon, during which Steinfeld greeted local students, cheerleaders performed, and students cheered before getting a chance to work out in the new facility.

The three New York fitness centers, including the one opened today in Saranac, are the last installment of this impressive effort. The other two are in Troy Middle School in the Capital Region and Hamlin Park School #74 in the Buffalo area.

“We are thrilled to have been chosen as one of the three New York sites for this project,” said Superintendent Javier Perez. “This new fitness center will be an amazing opportunity for all our students, not just student athletes, to learn about staying fit while using state-of-the-art workout equipment.”

Saranac Director of Data, Curriculum, Grants/Funding Brittany Trybendis was not optimistic when the district first submitted its application for the project. Saranac was one of more than 100 applicants from throughout the state, and only three would receive the award.

It also required a different kind of application than she’s used to. Generally, she writes 50 to 60 pages when applying for a grant, gift or other funding. For this project, she was required to submit a video that couldn’t be longer than 2 minutes and 12 seconds.

With a short timeframe to work with – about two weeks – Trybendis did her best to compile a video that described why Saranac would be a great place for one of these state-of-the-art fitness centers. Students and staff submitted various segments, and she edited them together into a cohesive video that answered the application questions.  

The application video can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgLw9_k3xZs.

A few weeks later, they were told to gather everyone in the video for a follow-up video interview. NFGFC instead surprised them by telling them they had won. They recorded video of Saranac staff and students shouting and jumping for joy at the exciting surprise.

“It was pretty shocking to win out of all of those folks,” Trybendis said.

The space was measured and prepared through the spring and summer, and the fitness equipment was delivered and set up this week.

And now, the district has the opportunity to buy even more of the fitness equipment at a deeply discounted price, so they plan to take advantage of that and add some additional fitness center space in the future.