According to Cecilia Ziko, the first time that the Lifeline Fitness Program saved her life was in 1983, one year after her first child was born.
“I needed to make a change,” she remembers. “I needed to make a life for myself.”
After reading an article about the popularity and success of Lifeline’s programs, Ziko decided to give the program a try.
“When I felt that I needed to do something to make myself feel strong, I first thought of Lifeline,” she said.
Since then, Ziko says that Lifeline’s programs, staff, and participants have been a constant source of strength when nothing else was. When her husband died in 1999, she credits the program for helping her get through yet another difficult time.
“Being an only parent, life got really difficult again,” she said.
When USM President Selma Botman announced that the University would close down the 33-year-old fitness program on July 31 to shore up an ongoing budget deficit, Ziko was shocked to learn that her long-time source of support had an expiration date.
“I personally find it depressing, and short-sighted of the President to want to cut this program,” she remarked last weekend, in between routines at the Lifeline Body Shop.
In a University-wide memo released last week, Botman cited budgetary constraints as the reason for the cut. She emphasized the need to prioritize funding according to the University’s “core academic mission.”
USM is still scrambling to account for $900,000 out of a total $2.7 million state curtailment of funding for the University. Shutting down the Lifeline program will account for $200,000 a year, she says.
Tom Downing, executive director for Lifeline, said that Botman’s decision came as no surprise given the broader economic circumstances.
“These are extremely challenging and difficult times. And I’m saddened, obviously, that our program has to close. But I’m certainly understanding that the primary focus of a college or university is teaching.”
News of Botman’s decision broke amidst speculation by University students and faculty about the programatic impact of the University of Maine System’s restructuring plan, announced by UMS Chancellor Richard Pattenaude on Jan 11.
“These are not choices between poorly run, unneeded programs and programs of quality, but rather choices between what we can and cannot afford to do,” Botman stated in the memo.
Other programs currently under scrutiny include USM’s childcare program.
Lifeline began in 1976 as a Jewish Community Center fitness program at the YMCA on Forest Avenue. Lifeline’s popularity grew to the point where the YMCA’s facilities were no longer adequate.
“In the mid-70s the whole running craze was escalating. At one time, we probably had 500 people in our walk/jog class,” said Downing.
In 1977, the program joined forces with the university to offer a larger space to run its popular jogging program. By 1978 however, the YMCA had decided to move on, and Downing and his staff moved the entire program to the university’s Sullivan Fitness Complex.
Downing says Lifeline’s mission has always been to offer a down-to-earth community gym, one that is non-judgemental and inclusive.
“This is not the Bay Club, this is not Planet Fitness,” Downing said last Friday.
“It’s more designed to be an environment where people can feel safe. They don’t have to have the latest Spandex.”
Ziko agrees that the laid-back environment is part of the appeal.
“I keep coming back for the same reason,” she said. “It’s not a ‘fitness factory.’ There aren’t rows and rows of cardio machines with televisions. It’s not huge and overwhelming.”
Downing says that the recent increase in competition from larger gyms like Planet Fitness has resulted in lower enrollment in Lifeline programs, citing the fitness behemoth’s ability to undercut almost every other local gym.
Lifeline’s longevity in the face of these corporate mega-gyms is partially due to the niche it has carved out in Southern Maine as a comfortable, cloistered workout environment. Downing also attributes the programs success to the close working relationship it has developed with area physicians through their rehabilitation programs.
“We get referrals from physicians all the time. They know that if they send somebody here, we’re going to follow the guidelines, and that their patients have a good chance of meeting their goals,” he said.
Lifeline’s popular Enhance Fitness program, which is offered three times a week, is a group aerobics class designed for the aging population who otherwise wouldn’t have access to a regular workout routine.
“Some of these people live by themselves and that’s their one social activity of the day.”
Ziko says that the Enhance program is especially important to the local aging population.
“I just see how incredibly important the program has been to them, getting them out of the house, keeping them mobile, keeping them strong and literally well-balanced.”
Some of Lifeline’s programs will continue to operate at the Sullivan Complex but which programs will survive, and in what format they will be offered has not yet been determined.
“Discussions are under way with Student Recreation to see if there’s a feasibility to continue some of Lifeline’s group exercise programming,” says Downing.
For now, all Lifeline memberships will be honored through Jul 31, at which point members will be directed to renew their memberships at the Sullivan Fitness Center.
The important thing, Downing says, is that the spirit of Lifeline’s mission will carry on in some form even after the program shuts down.
“We’re just trying to make sure the public understands we haven’t forgot about them,” he explained.
Ziko says that she will probably still continue to work out at the Sullivan Complex, but that without the Lifeline staff, the experience won’t be the same.
“The instructors are incredibly knowledgable and just really good communicators of health and wellness, and they’ve been a very important part of my life, offering encouragement and advice. You can’t put a price on that kind of thing.”