Skip to content
  • Donate here

Service, Scholarship, Leadership

  • Posted on November 5, 2012
  • 0
  • Posted by Samantha Watkins

 

Our Founder, Laura Pritchard, was featured on the front page of the University of Virginia”s Curry School of Education Kinesiology Newsletter.

SERVICE, SCHOLARSHIP, LEADERSHIP: Curry alumni excel in their professions

You Opened a Gym Where?

Laura Pritchard (B.S.Ed. ‘9, M.Ed. ’10 Exerc Phys) opens a nonprofit fitness center in the heart of a low-income Atlanta neighborhood

Imagine living in a neighborhood where the nearest grocery store is over a half hour’s ride on the city bus. Where criminal activity takes place openly in plain sight of children playing in the streets. Where recreational running in the neighborhood is not an option and there are no public places for organized exercise.

These are the conditions Laura Pritchard observed in an Atlanta neighborhood called The Bluff when as a second-year at U.Va. she took a year-long break from courses to do community service work. A dream began to formulate in her mind—a plan to help ameliorate the exercise and nutrition injustices she had observed.

The dream stayed with the southwestern Virginia native as she went on to complete a graduate degree in exercise physiology. It followed her as she worked with two national championship U.Va. tennis teams as their strength and conditioning coach.

In 2010 she moved to Atlanta and found a house across the street from Booker T. Washington High School, where Martin Luther King, Jr., attended as a youth. Little did she know that her vision would become reality so quickly.

Last January she opened a non-profit gym called Urban Perform located in English Avenue in a renovated warehouse owned by New Life Covenant Church. Pritchard is the gym’s executive director and chief fundraiser, as well as fitness instructor.

“I have probably stayed up later working on projects for UP than I ever did working on papers in college,” she told Atlanta’s Plywood People blog. “The desire to have a nonprofit that is truly making a difference in the community is boiling in my veins and makes me so excited I cannot sleep.”

“I have probably stayed up later working on projects for UP than I ever did working on papers in college.”

Continue reading

Post navigation

Casino Night & Silent Auction
Cycle of Love

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Find us on Facebook

Recent Posts

  • Hello world!
  • Ms.Samantha CCI Graduation
  • Wellness of West Atlanta – W.O.W
  • 10 looks we loved from fashion month
  • how to wear winter’s coolest cover-up

Recent Comments

  • Dedrick Henry on Ms Samantha gets accepted to CCI!
  • codemin on All We Read Is Freaks
  • THUR 12.15.16 CFM Star Wars: Rogue One Premiere Tonight! | CrossFit Midtown on Urban Perform Benefit WOD
  • WED 12.14.16 | CrossFit Midtown on Urban Perform Benefit WOD
  • TUES 12.13.16 | CrossFit Midtown on Urban Perform Benefit WOD

Archives

  • April 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • December 2013
  • October 2013
  • June 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • May 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011

Categories

  • Arts
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Featured
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Recent Posts

  • Hello world!
  • Ms.Samantha CCI Graduation
  • Wellness of West Atlanta – W.O.W
  • 10 looks we loved from fashion month
  • how to wear winter’s coolest cover-up
We're creating something special. Donations & Sponsorships are still being accepted. Please click 'DONATE HERE' up above to make you contibution.