Grace College had a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce and others Monday, Nov. 17, for the Center for Movement & Wellbeing in Winona Lake.

Text and Photos
By David Slone
Times-Union

WINONA LAKE – Grace College’s new Center for Movement & Wellbeing will allow Kosciusko County residents to take ownership of their health and wellness while providing Grace students with hands-on learning experiences.

At noon Monday, Nov. 17, Grace held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce for the Center for Movement & Wellbeing, located off the lobby of the Gordon Health & Wellness Center, 100 Publishers Drive, Winona Lake.

Christina Walters, director for the Center for Movement & Wellbeing and associate professor of exercise science, said, “Today marks a landmark moment for us as we gather to celebrate the grand opening of the Center for Movement & Wellbeing. It truly is an honor to welcome you to this new space, one that is designed to engage both our Kosciusko County community and our students in exploring the science of movement and wellbeing.”

She said their mission is “simple but powerful: To foster movement, health and wellbeing in our community.” They pursue that through four guiding pillars: assessment, education, research and collaboration. The center was born out of a Lilly Endowment grant called Charting the Futures, a program that was created to help universities and colleges meet the challenges and opportunities facing higher education today, she said.

“In a world where technology is evolving at lightning speed, it’s more important than ever that our students gain hands-on experience with modern tools and techniques. Everywhere we look, there are devices to measure our steps, our sleep, even our posture,” Walters said, adding they aim to go beyond the data. “We want students and community members to understand movement on a deeper human level.”

The center has also come about as part of the Catalyst Corridor program and the support of the Grace College administration, she said, as well as community partners.

Christina Walters, director for the Center for Movement & Wellbeing and associate professor of exercise science at Grace College, speaks Monday during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the center.

“Next year’s opening of the new fieldhouse at Miller Field marks another step in expanding the possibility for our students and community,” Walters said. “And that same spirit of innovation continues in this building where you’ll find state-of-the-art tools … But what excites me the most isn’t the equipment; it’s the people and the programs that have already been filling this space.”

She said they’ve hosted a fall Youth Lift program with the YMCA and five to six postpartum exercise classes for women. They’ve also had countless individual assessments with those who are seeking to move better and live well.

“The center represents what’s possible when education, innovation and community come together,” Walters stated.

Grace College President Dr. Drew Flamm reiterated, “The Center for Movement & Wellbeing is intended to engage and serve our community by offering health education and wellness programs, and this is really at the heart of who we are at Grace. It represents our core values of excellence, of mentorship, utilizing students to engage community, of service and engaging our community well.”

He pointed out that half of the renovations for the Gordon Health & Wellness Center have been completed.

“Beyond even the Center for Movement & Wellbeing, space for our nursing program, exercise science program, counseling offices for students on campus and so much more have been built and renovated over the last year,” Flamm said. “As mentioned, this is a part of Catalyst Corridor. This and a countless number of other projects with our community partners are happening to form a collaboration and build ways for our campus to connect to our neighbors. And this initiative, stretching here from Winona Lake all the way to Warsaw, is over $100 million of impact that we want to make for our neighbors.”

The center is one of those first projects to be underway over the next three to four years, he said. He thanked the donors and community partners for their support for the project – the YMCA, Warsaw Community Schools, the Gordon family, the Lilly Endowment, OrthoWorx, K21 Health Foundation and a list of individual donors by name.

Rich Haddad, president and CEO of K21, said the K21 Board of Directors was very excited about the overall future of the Gordon Health & Wellness Center.

“And we’re very excited to be part of this next phase for what this facility is going to do,” he said. “… The Center for Movement and Wellbeing, to me, to me, allows our mission to move forward in kind of three ways.”

The first is K21 is very invested and wants to see health education happening in Kosciusko County.

Grace College President Dr. Drew Flamm speaks at Monday’s ceremony for the Center for Movement & Wellbeing.

“We love that our future professionals, that are being trained here, educated here – at a very, very large percentage are going to choose to work here and live here. … Our hope is that the students love it so much they stay and then turn around and serve you, and meet your needs as it relates to your healthcare needs. So, we’re really excited that this program, the nursing program and others are happening right here in Kosciusko County because we believe that our community is so awesome that they’re not going to go anywhere, they’re going to love to be here,” Haddad said.

The second is what the center is offering the community, which is assessment and direction. The last thing is the facility.

“The fact that from day one, when this became a health and wellness center, it was open to students to give them opportunities to be healthy; for faculty; and the public itself. Seniors, specifically, but really the public and the future of this center is going to open up more and more opportunities to be a true community partner,” Haddad said.

In an interview before the ceremony, Walters explained the center is a “community-facing project where we want to engage our community and also our students. So, we want to bring both the students and the community together to be able to … foster movement, health and wellbeing in our community.”

There is a room with plenty of assessment equipment where body composition can be measured and other body analysis can be performed. In addition, they also are running programs. The community can sign up for the programs that will be offered at the center through the website or at the office in the center. Hours and the fee structure are listed on the website, and the center does have social media the public can follow as well.

“A lot of this is working with a student or myself, but then we’re guiding you through different assessments and then giving you results and then guiding you toward future exercises and recommendations,” she said.

Grace students in exercise science, who want to go into physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic, personal training or want to own their own business have been hired by Walters as interns. The interns are trained by Walters to work with community clients.

“It’s giving them kind of this double whammy of practicing the skills that they’re gaining in class, but then also seeing that worked out here. The practical experience is way better than the classroom experience,” she said.

The center’s website can be found at https://www.grace.edu/about/the-center-for-movement-and-wellbeing/