Hanson plans to offer more programming
By Bert Lehman
Nicole Hanson said her vision for CHS Rec Center is to offer programming to a wide range of age groups and offer things that haven’t been tried at the Rec Center in the past.
Hanson, an alumnus of Clintonville High School, who recently was named CHS Rec Center director, relayed her vision to the Clintonville School board Monday, Oct. 10, and updated the board on happenings at the Rec Center.
“I’m very excited to be there; it’s been a home to me,” Hanson said.
Hanson graduated from UW-Stevens Point with a degree in Health, Promotion and Wellness.
Some of the topics she studied included how to create health programs in businesses and the community setting.
“My end goal was to run a fitness center in a community setting,” Hanson said. “I really enjoy working with people, and in a community setting you have a wide range of ages.”
She said she also focused on holistic wellness at UW Stevens Point. She said there are seven different dimensions of wellness.
“I’d love to bring some of that philosophy into Clintonville’s Rec Center,” Hanson said.
Hanson said when she started as director two weeks ago she met individually with front desk supervisors, personal trainers and fitness instructors to get their ideas for improvements that could be made at the Rec Center.
“It’s been a long time since there’s been changes there, and I think it really has needed some new eyes look upon it and see where we need to go,” Hanson said.
She said the Rec Center has a good staff, but she feels it was underutilized in the past.
“We have some really talented supervisors,” Hanson said. “Our personal trainers are really passionate about fitness. I’m excited to give them projects.”
The ideas from the staff will be combined with her own ideas.
She said there are a lot of efficiency and procedural things she wants to improve.
Since the Rec Center is used by so many people, Hanson said there are space issues that need to be addressed.
Promotion and advertising are other areas Hanson is looking at improving.
“Me being a little bit younger generation, I’m very much all about the website, social media, how to get the word out about our programming and what we can do for this community in targeting the younger population,” Hanson said.
In addition to promoting the programs at the Rec Center, she said she also wants to promote healthy living.
Another goal of hers is to increase the number and variety of fitness classes.
“I want to have as much group fitness as we can, and have that offered to all populations of people who are in our community,” Hanson said.
Programming for kids and families is also important to Hanson.
“I worked in the summer camp world for five years now and I love programming for kids. I love having that after school activity, that fun game, that group team building initiatives for our kids,” Hanson said.
She also would like to add more “for fun” sports leagues, such as volleyball, basketball and indoor soccer.
“I’m all for trying many different things,” Hanson said. “I’m very driven and goal oriented. If it fails, that’s OK, we’ll just try something else. We’ll keep going forward.”