If you happened to be driving by Drover’s Run recently and a purple, wacky, waving, inflatable tube man caught your eye, you will have witnessed the preparations for the much-awaited grand opening of Niverville’s Anytime Fitness.
At 5:00 p.m. on May 4, staff rolled out the purple carpet to dignitaries, gym members, and anyone wishing to celebrate with them in their triumph over the hardships of the past 18 months.
Mayor Myron Dyck was on site to offer a hand in the official ribbon-cutting, along with co-owners Nathan Dyck and Kelly Barkman. The event included a full evening of food, giveaways, games, and entertainment by an in-house deejay.
“Choosing Niverville [for a gym location] was the easy part,” co-owner Dyck says. “The last two years have been a bit of a grind, but other than that we’ve never regretted [our decision to open here].”
A bit of a grind may be an understatement when one considers that the gym’s original opening day was set for November 2020, the same month that government-mandated lockdowns shuttered gyms across the province.
Four months later, on February 13, 2021, the gym was finally allowed to throw open the front doors to the public. Very shortly after, though, another shorter-term lockdown had them closed again.
After their eventual opening in the spring of 2021, Dyck says the mandated mask and distancing requirement while working out brought its own set of challenges for staff and patrons using the facility.
This spring’s celebration marks not only the grand opening but the first anniversary of the gym being open to the public long-term, making the day feel even more significant to the ownership team and staff.
Today, the gym employs 11 staff members, 10 of which are native to the community, including the personal trainer to the client membership. According to Dyck, hiring locally and supporting local business has been integral to their business model.
“We’ve been welcomed and [have so far received] tremendous support from the community,” Dyck says. “And now that we have our footing, we’ll actually be able to set down some roots. This is something that’s really important to us. We want to be involved in the community.”
The duo also own Anytime Fitness franchises in Lorette and Steinbach.
To make membership even more appealing, the pair have recently outfitted each of their locations with a state-of-the-art body scanner called the Evolt 360. In so doing, they hope to provide their members with top-notch technology which will help assess a client’s personal wellness and drive them towards achieving their wellness goals in a smart way.
The non-invasive, 60-second scan provides detailed data about a person’s composition by using more than 40 different metrics including bone density, visceral fat stores, and water retention.
It’s far more than a measurement of body mass index, Dyck says. It’s a full-body wellness indicator.
“You might be at the gym for two years and [feel] like nothing’s changed, but then you [get a scan] and you’re saying, ‘Wow, actually something did change and it was inside of me.’”
