And that’s the ultimate goal since Planet Fitness at Towne Mall Galleria opened its doors to the clients of Ability to Thrive, a private program started in Middletown using the blueprints of similar programs in Liberty Twp. and Hamilton.
Every Friday morning, for about 30 minutes, they work out at Planet Fitness under the watchful eye of physical trainer Deandre Allen, go out for lunch, then bowl at Eastern Lanes in Middletown.
Cathy Howell, an instructor with Ability to Thrive, said it’s a program without walls. The clients don’t stay in one place, protected from the outside world. They go into the community. Howell is grateful those at the fitness center and bowling alley welcome people with disabilities.
“It makes us feel accepted and that’s what it’s all about,” Howell said.
On Friday, as Allen, 26, a 2007 Hamilton High School graduate, barked out orders with a smile on his face, it was hard to tell who was having more fun, the instructor or his students. He told them to loosen up with a weighted ball, then led them in a series of push-ups. He constantly bantered with the three, trying to get them to improve their technique with the understanding of their physical limitations.
Throughout the workout, Linda McDowell stood to the side and watched her son, Jonathan. As parents, she said, we all want the same for our children. She mentioned health, happiness and the opportunity to enjoy the world reserved for typical children.
Her son, now 29, was born with a cognitive disabilities and reads at a second-grade level. He was placed in a development disabilities program when he was 3, his mother said.
She said the Ability to Thrive program is important because it allows people with disabilities to interact with the general public. She noted, after all, we don’t have special McDonald’s restaurants for customers with disabilities.
“If you work out with the same group all the time, that’s all you will ever know,” said McDowell, 63, who recently retired as a parent mentor in the Middletown City Schools District. “It doesn’t include everybody else in the community. In the world, I call it ‘self containment,’ if you’re just with people with disabilities, you don’t know any different.”
Her son looks forward to every Friday. He enjoys the exercise and the camaraderie, though not always in that order.
“It has broadened his life to be out here,” his mother said. “Everybody wants to have a place to belong. He wants to belong and be part of the community where he was born and raised.”
One Friday, while bowling at Eastern Lanes, McDowell befriended two older gentlemen. After talking to them, he learned they knew his grandmother. Suddenly, the three men, a young adult and two senior citizens, had a common thread, despite their differences in age and ability.
“Those connections are great for everybody, but especially for someone like Jonathan,” his mother said. “His world isn’t as big.”
But that doesn’t limit the impact McDowell, and two others in the exercise class — Steven Temple, 60, and Brian Hall, 54 — have on their trainer. Allen exercises their muscles, but at the end of the routine, he’s the one who feels refreshed.
Working with people with disabilities has “brought a new light to my life,” Allen said.
He looked over at the three, then added: “We are no different. People see us and think, ‘You have this, you have that,’ but we’re all the same. We need to see beyond what we can see on the exterior.”
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