Fitness club orders custom equipment for disabled member

Minerals Sports Club, a fitness, sports and social club in Vernon, ordered a new piece of cross training equipment to accommodate club member Kristi LoRé

Nearly two years ago, she was in a serious accident, in which she suffered a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

Club management, members of the fitness center and numerous residents from the surrounding communities contributed to the purchase through a fundraising event at Heaven Hill Farm in Vernon.

Julie Bush, a certified medical exercise specialist and certified personal trainer at Minerals Sports Club, discussed the NuStep T4R Recumbent Cross Trainer during the club’s recent holiday party.

“This equipment will allow people who are rehabilitating after an injury or challenged with mobility and/or lower body weakness to improve and maintain lower body joint range of motion, muscular strength and endurance,” she said.

“It will also potentially restore and improve leg functionality and enhance a person’s overall circulatory system, cardio-respiratory system and skeletal muscle function.

“Kristi will now have the ability to add the cardiovascular conditioning element into her workout, which will coincide with the strength training and aquatics training she is currently doing,” Bush said.

“We came together and successfully pioneered a volunteer success story that is the healthy approach our communities need at this time. Many of our members will benefit from this appreciable and tangible effort, providing a positive impact to our healthy home at Minerals Sports Club.”

The club also provided a complimentary 12-month extension to LoRé’s membership.

She said, “I am very appreciative for this considerate and generous gesture from Minerals Sports Club. Apart from my gratitude to fellow members and those in the community, I am beyond grateful to my thoughtful trainer Julie who initiated and organized this fundraiser for me with fierce persistence and determination to make it all happen. She is an inspiration to me and keeps me motivated and pushing forward each week.”

LoRé was thrown off a motorcycle, flew 150 feet and landed in the middle of a five-lane highway while on vacation in Florida in January 2021, according to a GoFundMe campaign started by her father, Gregory LoRé of Hamburg. Her boyfriend, Jason Rinker, was killed in the accident.