Kennedy Club Fitness could be ‘forced into extinction’ if guidelines don’t change soon 

Kennedy Club Fitness in Atascadero.

–A letter from Brett Weaver, managing partner of Kennedy Club Fitness

Fitness is essential

Since early March, I have been responding to phone calls and emails from the community, telling me that I am going to be held accountable for spreading COVID – 19 if Kennedy Club Fitness remains open. I have been told if cases are traced back to us I could be sued. Days before the mandatory shut down in March members who remained at the club were confiding in me the fact that their friends and family were shaming them for coming in to work out. My response to them was that we are continuing to bring health and fitness to our community like we have been doing for 40 years. In addition, I expressed to them the benefits of fitness especially the role it plays in helping to boost the immune system.

The health and fitness industry should have been deemed essential from the beginning, along with every other health professional. Instead, we were listed as high risk and non-essential. The perception is that everyone in our facilities are breathing, sweating, and spitting on each other. If you have ever been a member at any fitness facility, you know this perception is incorrect. What you find here are hard-working, caring individuals who make themselves available to help you however they can.

The virus threat is real, and we have spent months preparing for it by following the state’s guidelines for reopening, along with many other businesses. Our facilities are clean, modern and have strict sanitation policies in place. Despite this, 30 days after reopening we were required to shut down again along with restaurants, salons, bars etc. unless we were able to conduct business outdoors.

Many members of Kennedy Club Fitness are also members of this community who have had to modify their business, if possible, in order to remain open. The struggle is real! Kennedy Club Fitness, like many of these businesses, has had to lay off, furlough, and terminate hundreds of employees, in the hopes of sustaining any semblance of business at all. Like us, many businesses have lost thousands of dollars, and hundreds of members, or customers who are experiencing both fear of coming in, and financial hardship.

The impact on the community is not only measured in loss of business or jobs, but in the contributions businesses make to our community. Annually, Kennedy Club Fitness is involved in many charitable causes. We support Family Care Network, The Salvation Army, The Food Bank, Cuesta Athletics, and Jack’s Helping Hand, just to name a few.

We need your support and understanding, especially in the next 30- 60 days, as we move forward out of the current situation we are in. If we don’t get back to operating business under the state’s original guidelines very soon, many of us could be forced into extinction.