2012-08-07_PR_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Colorado has worked with more than 600 adult sites since 2005,according to Barry King,the founder.In addition to sites io public parks,the equipment is being installed at residential developments and business complexes. Jim Sargen.aformer technology executive who started TriActive America in California,which has supplied 47o adult sites mince2o04.half in the past three years,said he discovered firsthand while traveling in Beijing in2002that exercise could be passed off am play."My wife,who doesn't normally exercise,climbed onto one of the piecem.^he recalled."She said,'I±'m kind offuo.'and ao idea dicbed.^ The adult playground in the Bronx,the city's poorest borough and a place dogged by troubling health statistics,is built oo top ofaparking garage and sandwiched between a track and basketball and handball courts.It has attracted regulars like Brian Ferreira,20,who once tried working out at a children's playground near his home in Soundview, only to draw stares from the parents.Now he hops onto two trains and a bus,three times a week,to have a playground of his own."I use every piece of equipment,"he said."It's good endurance training." On a recent morning,regulars and newcomers alike drifted onto the playground and waited patiently—no tears or whining here—to use the equipment;one of the most popular was a pair of metal seats that any child would have loved,rising and falling with the push of foot pedals. The morning hours brought fathers with toddlers,and muscled older men who wore gloves and earphones and effortlessly executed situps,push-ups and pull-ups.They retreated when noisy teenagers passed through bouncing basketballs and running around the equipment without stopping to use any. In the afternoon,a 3o-year-old court clerk swung from the monkey bars during his lunch hour.Others just watched. "Oh no,I'm past my prime,"said Daren Trapp,a bus driver with a tummy bulge who was among the observers."It's out io the open,and I guess I'm a private iodividua].^ But Colette Prosper,an unemployed mother of five,and her daughter,Iesha,21,came ready to sweat.It was their third time at the playground in a week;the first time,a stranger had to show them how to use the equipment.Ms. Prosper,45,who said she was trying to lose 40 Pounds,said her clothes were already feeling looser. "It's a free membership,and I like what they have to offer,"she said."I'm getting older,so I'm trying to get everything in shape."