The Prairie Wind Fitness Center
                                          by Sheridan County Health Plus, Inc   

Invest in your health

Fitness is a good predictor of long-term health and life expectancy.  The fitness of the average American, and especially our children, has been in steady decline over the past decade.  According to many recent health projections, the present younger generation will be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.  The reasons for this are multiple and spur a lot of discussion and debate, but most experts would agree that a major contributor to this decline in fitness is a parallel decline in physical activity.

 Our county has many elderly people who have lived well into their 80’s and 90’s while enjoying a full and productive life.  Many of them comment that they never expected that they would live this long nor continue to be able to enjoy life like they do.  Although we would like to credit modern medicine with this success, the fact is that many of these individuals have required little actual medical care.  So what is their secret?  Most likely it is a combination of genetic factors and other factors, however, there is a common thread in many of their histories.

 They grew up in the years before rural electrification and mechanization of labor.  The first forty or more years of their lives were spent physically doing the labor of daily living.  They manually pumped their water from a well, they walked 100 feet to the outhouse, they used a half-bushel scoop to move grain from the wagon to the storehouse, they kneaded bread and used a wash board, they bundled grain and hand fed it to the threshing machine, and they walked a mile or more to school.  They were physically fit because the labor of living kept them fit.  It is our suspicion that this physical fitness plays a large part in their successful old age.  One near octogenarian  (he died at 98) commented that when he was a young man it was rare to see a 200 pound man.  Look around now.

 Living in our modern society is not nearly as physically demanding (it may be more mentally stressful) as life in the first half of the 20^th century was.  So how can we improve our fitness and potentially enjoy a healthier and longer life?  We can exercise more.  Easy to say but much harder to do, especially on a long term basis!  Is there any way to make fitness more enjoyable and therefore hold our interest longer?  We feel a community fitness center accomplishes this and we are committed to doing it.

 This is the reasoning for the proposal for a community health and fitness center in Sheridan County.  The need is here, the plan is here, the desire is here.  This is a very doable project with significant benefits to many of us in the county.  Its success will depend on your support.  Visit the proposal we have made and consider contributing time, funds, or ideas.