YMCA Gives Exercise Equipment to School

Cleveland High School students and staff are pumped up about the complete line of exercise equipment they received from the West Valley YMCA.

The strength-training equipment includes free weights, leg lifts, arm curls and bench presses, among other items, said Felicia Hochstein, membership coordinator for the Y. The collection is valued at $35,000.

The YMCA purchased the equipment new four years ago, Hochstein said. It survived the Northridge earthquake even though the building it was housed in did not.

Members continued to work out in trailers set up in a parking lot while a new building was under construction, Hochstein said. New exercise equipment will be in place when the new building opens April 7.

“Rather than sell the equipment off, we decided to give it away,” Hochstein said. “We wanted to show that we are a community-based facility, and what better way to do that than to give it to a neighbor who could really use it?”

In exchange for the equipment, Hochstein said, the high school agreed to open its gym for evening adult basketball league games.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Assistant Principal Al Weiner about the donation. “Now we have a complete line of training equipment that both the students and the faculty can use.”