The Social Club T
It’s not typical for owners to be non-fitness pros, but this club is anything but typical. BY KIMBERLY CHAPMAN
Photos by Wendy Lewicki
www.wendyalanaphotography.com
he Social Club is located in Binbrook, a small rural town in Southern Ontario. Owner Amber Adams grew up in Binbrook, attended the tiny elementary school
on the town’s only main road, and married a boy she met on the school bus. She has always loved the town, her relationships with neighbours and the community involvement that has created a feeling of home for her. Like many rural Ontario commu-
nities however, Binbrook watched the edges of nearby Hamilton creep ever closer to the farmers’ fields. A few years ago, the city finally met the country, and the fields and open spac- es surrounding Binbrook’s only stop- light began to fill with acres of new housing subdivisions. All of a sud- den there were more and more unfa- miliar faces at the corner store, the library and the school. Binbrook was changing. Adams asked herself, did it really
have to change? Binbrook was going to look different, but did it have to feel different? And so, the vision of The Social
Club began to form. When she began to consider creat-
ing a fitness club in Binbrook, Adams was working in the city of Hamilton. As a social worker, she was attuned to the negative effects of stressful jobs, busy lives, lack of time and unhealthy eating. Working in a large city, she saw the impact of disengaged neighbour- hoods and the struggle to bring people together as a community. She knew she wanted to keep the
feeling of Binbrook’s community alive, continue a culture of community en- gagement and help people know their neighbours. She wanted to create a
gathering place, where people could connect and be active and engaged. In the early phase of the dream, she
considered establishing a small fitness franchise. The financials suggested it would be a solid business idea – mini- mal initial investment, positive mem- bership projections and a manage- able plan. But she knew it wasn’t what she wanted for Binbrook. She couldn’t make it fit her vision, and so she moved on and decided to build some- thing from nothing. Adams describes herself as fortu-
nate to have had the unwavering sup- port of her family, particularly her parents, but that alone wasn’t going to get The Social Club built. Banks have become very leery of financing fitness facilities, and being a non-fitness pro didn’t help. Securing the funds to build the club
was only the first of many challenges Adams would face, but it was the ob- stacle that nearly ended the project be- fore it began. The risks were huge, the future unknown. After much time, worry and weigh-
ing of the options, a space was secured, architectural drawings were completed and a contractor selected. The vision began to take shape. Adams took a leave of absence from her career in the city so she could oversee the demands of the project. Just as things really started moving,
Adams’ father died suddenly at the age of 66 of a massive heart attack. The loss was devastating. In other circum- stances Adams would have stopped life for a while, but there was no time for this to happen. The Social Club held its grand open- ing on February 3, 2013. Just before »
November/December 2013 Fitness Business Canada 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48