Fitness Center for Disabled Is Dedicated : Exercise: It’s the first city-operated facility of its kind, with equipment designed for wheelchair workouts.

With a little pomp and a lot of festivity, the first city-operated fitness facility for the disabled in Los Angeles was dedicated Saturday at the Chatsworth Park South Recreation Center.

The program included the solemn ceremonial events expected at an official occasion: presentation of the colors by a local Boy Scout troop, the Pledge of Allegiance, an invocation, introduction of city officials and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

But the formal part of the program was kept to a minimum so the real stars of the day--the disabled people served by the new fitness center--could take the limelight.

They were featured in demonstrations that showcased their talents in song, dance, arts, horseback riding and sports such as wheelchair tennis and basketball for the 250 people who attended the opening.

The fitness center, in a newly built room adjoining the park’s main building, features exercise equipment that is custom-built so that handicapped people can use it while seated in their wheelchairs.

For example, one machine allows the performance of five different exercises from electric and manual wheelchairs.

Partially funded by a $1.3-million grant from the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, the center is the first of three for the disabled that will be installed in city recreation facilities.

“One of my personal dreams is to have places like this where people in wheelchairs can come to work out throughout the city,” said Ce Etta Crayton, consultant to the city Recreation and Parks Department’s Adaptive Sports Program.

“As far as I know, this is not only the first center of its kind in the city of Los Angeles but in the entire country. And it will become a model for others. After all, there aren’t a lot of places people in wheelchairs can go to work out.”

A second center will open at Martin Luther King Recreation Center in South-Central Los Angeles within a year, Crayton said. The third will be installed at the Elysian Park Recreation Center in late 1992 or in 1993, she said.

The cost of the fitness center at Chatsworth Park was $224,000. The foundation, created to manage the surplus from the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, contributed $124,000. The city--using state funds earmarked for recreation--paid the balance. The other two planned centers will each receive $588,000 from the foundation.

According to statistics compiled by the state Department of Rehabilitation, about 96,000 disabled people live in the San Fernando Valley, which has one of the largest disabled populations in Los Angeles.

“In recent years, there hasn’t been too much to meet their needs,” said Eileen Libbey, recreation therapist in charge of the disabled program at Chatsworth Park. A survey on recreational needs in the Valley by the Recreation and Parks Department in 1988 showed that there is a dearth of activities for the disabled, she said.

Chatsworth Park’s year-old recreation program for the disabled offers such activities as drama, music and wheelchair sports to about 300 disabled people between the ages of 5 and 93, Libbey said.

On Saturday, Councilman Hal Bernson and other city officials shared the spotlight with wheelchair-bound Erich Malone of Chatsworth; actor Brad Silverman, 23, who has Down’s syndrome, and the handicapped members of the Brite Lites Theater Company.

Erich, a 9-year-old who has muscular dystrophy, cut the ribbon dedicating the facility and was the first to try the equipment. “This is neat,” he said, flexing his arm muscles.

“It’s amazing how far we handicapped kids can go,” said Silverman, who was featured in the Feb. 11 segment of the television series “Life Goes On.”

The Brite Lites troupe grew out of the Chatsworth center’s program for the handicapped.

“They’re just wonderful, aren’t they?” beaming music teacher Pat Weistling said as she watched the members of the company sing and dance their way through “Oklahoma!” and a medley of other show tunes.

“They’ve looked forward to this day,” Weistling said. “They’ve been preparing for it for months. It truly is their day.”

The fitness center will be open on a limited schedule: 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, 3 to 6 p.m. Thursdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays.