What does your membership do?
More Than A Member
Each January we launch a campaign to help all of you motivated people into the gyms, pools and sports halls across Perth and Kinross. While we were chatting about ideas it occurred to us that most of you looking to join a gym or sign up to a class will know all about the health benefits, the wellbeing advantages and that fantastic high you’re going to feel when you start on your path to achieving your goals.
What you might not realise though, is that as well as helping yourself, your membership fees at Live Active Leisure bring amazing benefits to the local community. In our capacity as a leisure trust, the monthly fees that we gather from Live Active Leisure members are reinvested into our services and equipment. So there is no-one person getting rich from the profits and no ‘shareholders before stakeholders’ mentality driving decision making. Instead, our team are here to ensure that we deliver on our promises across a wide range of sport and fitness opportunities for you, your families and the communities of Perthshire and Kinross.
So when you’re making your decision to join a gym this January, think about what else you could bring to your local community with your fees. At Live Active Leisure each and every one of you is #MoreThanAMember.
Here are just some of the great services and community benefits your fees help to deliver in Perthshire and Kinross:
FREE SWIMMING FOR UNDER FIVES
Last year your membership fees helped 1500 children under the age of five swim for free. This one little service helps children develop a love of the water from a young age, keeps costs down for mums and dads who choose sport over other activities, encourages kids to grow up seeing sports and fitness as a fun choice and ensures that enjoying the local pool becomes a right for all children and not just those who can afford it.
Live Active Member, John Bruce, enjoys swimming at Perth Leisure Pool and can often be seen in the training pool during our early morning daybreak dip times. John swims three or four times a week when he can and in recent years this has extended to taking in his three year old twin boys, Gregory and Vinnie. John is a huge supporter of Live Active Leisure’s free swims for under-fives and is delighted that his £30 each month goes towards supporting this.
“I’m from Aberdeen originally and I honestly believe that here in Perth we often don’t realise how lucky we are to have a facilities that are owned and managed by a dedicated sports & leisure trust. I love using the pool at Perth, I enjoy seeing the young athletes train and I’m really pleased that this is where my boys are learning to swim and finding their love of the water.”
Thanks to John, for being #MoreThanAMember!
GP REFERRAL SCHEME
Throughout Perth and Kinross your GP or health professional (such as a physiotherapist) can refer you to Live Active Leisure for supported activity sessions. GP referral clients are given a heavily subsidised membership for 12 weeks, an initial assessment, an exercise programme that has been drawn up to suit their specific needs and a lot of encouragement to stay on the path to health and fitness. Typically, programmes will last for 24 sessions – they will usually suggest 2 sessions a week over a 12 week period – and the aim is to build confidence, create good habits and provide the tools required for people to continue on their own.
It has been proven time and again that if you are fit and well, you will have fewer health issues and therefore rely less on the NHS. This amazing scheme is about preventing long term health issues and has an impact on the personal wellbeing of those who use it and the financial burden on our national health service.
Geniusly simply!
At Breadalbane Community Campus, we caught up with Laura McIver who pays for a monthly membership. Laura uses the gym and the pool, and also enjoys the core conditioning class and the bootcamp class. Her daughter, who is 7, takes swimming lessons and gymnastics at the Campus. She chose Live Active Leisure because she uses the facilities a lot and for £30 a month it works out at a great deal for Laura. She told us, “The staff are friendly and really helpful and you have everything your need on your doorstep.”
Laura’s £30 each month also supports Kay Campbell, a GP referral client who has been using the community campus for three months. Kay was referred to LAL after having surgery for Breast Cancer and has used exercise as part of her recovery process. Kay has other health complications and has found that a return to sport has been fantastic for both her physical and mental wellbeing. Read Kay’s blog here!
Thanks to Laura, for being #MoreThanAMember and to Kay who is about to sign up to her full member’s package!
TALENTED ATHLETE SCHEME
Together with Sportscotland and the Tayside & Fife Institute of Sport Live Active Leisure works in developing the additional needs of our high achievers. These are the young athletes who demonstrate the skill and commitment required to represent Scotland and Great Britain on an international stage.
Live Active Leisure’s Talented Athletes’ Scheme supports these young people by providing assistance and free access to their venues. This enables them to reach their full potential and to achieve world class performance levels. This is about nurturing and developing our local talent by helping these young athletes train and grow in the support network of their home towns and city. By doing this, we hope to inspire other youngsters in Perth and Kinross and to bring that real sense of achievement a city embraces when celebrating the success of one of their own.
Success like Eve Muirhead’s, our homegrown Olympian who in 2013 brought home an Olympic Medal from the Sochi Winter Games to add to her impressive array of achievements. Eve has been a member of the LAL Talented Athlete Scheme since she was 15 years old and her first strength and conditioning programme was devised by Live Active Atholl. Eve still carries her card and is a huge supporter of LAL and all that is does in the local community. She will happily explain why a scheme such as this is vital in supporting our next generation of world class athletes.
Supporting the Talented Athlete Scheme with her membership is Katy Webster. Katy works at Perth Racecourse and is a young, busy events professional. She enjoys the early morning classes, which she says, set her up for the day and keep her fit and healthy for her demanding job. She is a huge sports fan and is proud that her membership helps support the young athletes of tomorrow. “Knowing that in a small way my membership helped Eve bring back her Olympic medal to Perthshire is an amazing feeling! I love that I support this scheme.”
Thanks to Katy, for being #MoreThanAMember!
ACTIVE ENERGY MEMBERS
Our Active Energy members can enjoy the first taste of a fitness membership from the age of twelve. Keeping fit and healthy is important at all ages but we know that by giving teenagers a love of exercise we’re helping them find the tools that will see them enjoy a lifetime of health. By fitting in just 60 minutes a day – or four sessions of 15 minutes, or two of 30, you get the idea! – teenagers will strengthen their muscles, keep a healthy weight and beat that exam / relationship / teenage stress.
Active Energy Memberships come with a heavily discounted monthly fee to encourage young people to get involved and join in. This entitles them to use the facilities and gain access to specific gym sessions, classes and pool discos that have been created with teens in mind.
Lola Irving is a new Active Energy Member and she has been enjoying the fantastic range of sports and fitness on offer. At the moment, her favourite is the teen classes at Bells Sports Centre and like a lot of young girls, she loves to meet up with her friends and hit the gym for a workout. She is a keen netballer and runner and uses her membership to stay fit for both.
Your membership fees of £30 each month supports our decision to offer subsidised fees to young adults like Lola, and to provide the qualified instructors to give the dedicated classes that help build their confidence. Gary Paterson is a new member and he has been very impressed with the recent upgrade at Rodney weights room! In the winter, with the dark nights and bad weather, he also uses the running machines and bikes. Gary’s fitness goals are to improve strength and overall general fitness, to help his two big loves of snowboarding and mountain biking. He is determined to release that six pack and is booking in for Insanity and Body Pump classes in 2015.
Gary was previously a member at another Perth gym.
“The overall cost was high in comparison to Live Active Membership particularly as the facilities provided were no better. The location of Rodney is perfect for me and the facilities are exactly as I require. I also enjoy Perth Leisure Pool and being able to take my children there as often as they want to go, at no extra cost, was a huge selling point for me.”
“I love that my membership helps supports teen classes. With two little ones of my own, I want them to grow up enjoying exercise. For me, a membership that gives me everything I need and supports my local community is a win win.”
Thanks to Gary and Lola, for being #MoreThanAMember!
OUR PEOPLE!
Of course, your membership fees support us! Live Active Leisure employs almost 600 people in Perth and Kinross and is the area’s thirteenth largest employer. Together our team consists of gym instructors, life guards, personal trainers, class instructors, operation managers, catering assistants, cooks, receptionists, administrators, office managers, trainers and so many more! We are here because you choose to use us and we are delighted!
You support people like Colin Keogh, who has spent a lifetime in Sports and Leisure and who loves coming into work every single day! He’s always smiling and happy and it’s all thanks to you. Colin has been a Fitness Instructor with LAL for over eleven years now and he is currently taking classes at Live Active Rodney, Bells Sports Centre and North Inch Community Campus. He is a personal trainer and also helps GP referral clients with their goals and programmes.
Colin and the other employees who work for Live Active Leisure are supported by members’ fees. Members like Nicki Martin, who is in a unique position as she not only pays her £30 each month but she also works alongside LAL as an external contractor delivering our press and blog. Nicki is a huge LAL fan, proudly holds a self-awarded certificate for having completed every class in Perth and is currently in a love/hate relationship with Insanity!
Nicki is delighted that her fees contribute to the ongoing training and development of the LAL team. “I have used LAL for years and as well as helping me to keep fit and healthy in gym sessions, personal training sessions and classes the LAL team has been a big part of my personal life. I have experienced everything from the joy of watching my young toddler son learn how to swim to a very real sense of pride at shedding that extra stone through regular exercise. All of this is down to the team at LAL and I am thrilled that my fees help keep them trained, motivated and there to help all of us.”
Thanks to Nicki for being #MoreThanAMember!