The City that Saved a Gym

New words we never thought we would use...pandemic, quarantine, social distancing, essential businesses... these are now a part of our regular vocabulary. As a virus we could not fully understand swept over our nation, one thing became soberingly clear: our social and economic climate was changing rapidly, and in some pretty frightening ways.

The "experts" had very few answers, and those answers seemed to change almost daily. The authorities felt compelled to do "something" about all of this. Were the next steps motivated by fear? Political gain? Real knowledge? A wild guess? Who knows? But all the same, the closures came, and GAR North was not spared from the impact.

Mid March, we locked the doors and went home. Some 600 or so gyms in America also closed their doors... for the very last time. We wondered if we would be joining their ranks.

Ten weeks of sleepless nights would follow. Would we be able to re-open? What will we all do if we can't? Determined to do the right thing for our customers, we announced that everyone's payment would be stopped going into April and promised 1/2 tuition on the first month of return to make up for the 2 weeks missed.