5,500 Granite State Teens Spent Summer Working Out: Update – Hampton, NH Patch


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Planet Fitness: New Hampshire teens logged in 29,000+ workouts during Teen Summer Challenge earning Boys & Girls Club a $10K donation.

By Tony Schinella, Patch Staff
Brian Zehetner (center), Director of Health & Fitness, Planet Fitness, leads NASCAR driver Joey Logano (third from left) and local teens in a workout after announcing the 20,000-workout initiative in July.
Brian Zehetner (center), Director of Health & Fitness, Planet Fitness, leads NASCAR driver Joey Logano (third from left) and local teens in a workout after announcing the 20,000-workout initiative in July. (Planet Fitness )

HAMPTON, NH — The country’s largest fitness center chain announced Friday that more than 5,500 teens in the Granite State worked out for free during the Teen Summer Challenge in 2019. Seventeen of the Planet Fitness locations in the state were free for 15- to 18-year-olds between mid-May and Sept. 1. Another part of the program was to get the teens to continue to work out.

If they logged in more than 20,000 workouts, the company would make a $10,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester. During the challenge, more than 29,000 workouts were logged in.

“New Hampshire teens not only signed up, they kept coming back to the gym, working to build lifelong healthy habits and getting active for a good cause,” said Chris Rondeau.

The 2019 numbers are double what they were last year when 2,500+ teens logged in around 12,000 gym visits.

The idea came to be after Planet Fitness commissioned a national study to examine how teens felt about health and fitness. Ninety-one percent agreed that they wanted to stay healthy and active during the summer. But more than 40 percent reported that their fitness levels decreased during the summer – because they didn’t know where to exercise. More teens also said they needed more guidance on how to exercise.

Gov. Chris Sununu commended the program because it gave kids “the opportunity to stay active over the summer months and maintain a healthy, balanced lifestyle,” while “ensuring that the benefits of this program continue to be felt for months and months to come.”

Diane Fitzpatrick, the CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, thanked the company for the donation and the teens for getting more than enough workouts in.

“Your effort will make a world of difference for our members who rely on our services throughout the year,” she said.

Got a news tip? Send it to Tony Schinella at tony.schinella@patch.com.

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