Residents of all ages and fitness levels can now enjoy a public place to exercise, free of charge, with the April 23 groundbreaking of Beaufort County Community College’s new walking trail.

The trail is funded by a $150,000 grant awarded to the school by the Kate. B. Reynolds Charitable Trust said Grant Writer and Coordinator of Special Projects for BCCC, Sara Singleton. The trust is part of Healthy Places North Carolina, a long-term trust initiative to improve health and health care in rural, financially disadvantaged counties in North Carolina.

Singleton said the trail is still under construction, but the public can, at this point, enjoy walking on the mile-long trail beginning at Building 8 of the campus around to buildings 11 and 4. Singleton said the construction of the health and fitness stations along the trail will continue through the summer.

“The actual trail itself is down and completed,” Singleton said. “We are in the process of ordering all the outdoor exercise equipment because it will have stations along it. But with this project, the trail will be open to everyone, not just people on our campus. It is open to our entire community.

“Our goal is to help the folks in our community who can’t afford a gym membership. We want to give them a place where they can come and improve their health, and we would love it, if while they are here, they see some other things on our campus and decide they want to be a student or take some classes in continuing education. ”

Singleton said residents can get a full-body workout through strength, flexibility and cardiovascular training. Between all three stations, people will be able to work every muscle group. Each station will have assessment equipment that measures blood pressure, blood oxygenation and grip strength. For those who are handicapped, there is wheelchair accessible equipment as well.

According to Singleton, the school plans to have this equipment ordered and installed within the next month to six weeks, putting the full opening at around the end of the summer.

“When we originally proposed the project we were hoping it would be finished in October,” Singleton said. “We have actually moved that up. We are thinking we will be able to have a grand opening in August now.”

The trail and its stations will become apart of the school’s Health and Fitness Science Program coursework, which was started in Fall 2013 said Singleton. Students and faculty will use the equipment to get a hands-on experience with health and fitness.

“The trail is another way to strengthen classes and offer additional services to the community,” Singleton said. “Once the trail is open, our lead instructor for Health and Fitness Science will be working with his students to go out and do outreach to the community, to talk to groups about health, to talk to them about what they can do on our campus as far as using the fit trail. That will be a part of their coursework. They will be working with people.”