WASI fitness program still ‘under the weather’

WASILLA — Just when relationships seemed to be improving at the Wasilla Area Senior Center, the sudden firing of the center’s much-touted fitness instructor and closing of the center’s gym have sparked a new round of protests.

Some members of Wasilla Area Seniors Inc., or WASI, worry that grant funds meant to keep the Club50 Fitness program operating will be in jeopardy if the situation isn’t resolved soon.

“WASI’s financial situation is only going to get worse if those grant monies disappear,” member Lois Wier said. “That’s about $150,000 total that we desperately need. Closing Club50 was the last thing that should have happened.”

WASI members had first become vocal more than a month ago when its former programs director, Sheila Walker, and the assistant to the former fitness instructor Karla Atwood were fired by WASI Executive Director Sondra Kaplan for reasons that were unclear to them.

Walker claimed she was fired for trying to blow the whistle on Kaplan for alleged grant mismanagement. Kaplan has denied that claim. “Insubordination” was cited as the reason for Walker’s termination, according to a WASI board member.

Just after Walker was let go, the Club50 Fitness Center operating hours were reduced without explanation and seniors who depended on the center for their physical therapy say they never knew when it was going to be open from day to day.

Kaplan and her marketing director, Diana Straub, claimed the gym couldn’t operate in the mornings — when it was most often used by seniors — because the staff wasn’t available then. However, employee and former certified fitness instructor Atwood disagrees.

She said she was always available in the mornings before Straub fired her.

“I was able to work any time of the day and they knew that,” Atwood said recently. “I loved working with the members. They were like family to me and I really miss them.”

In addition, WASI board meetings were commonly held behind closed doors and neither board members nor executives were readily available to discuss center business with members, seniors say.

Frustrations came to a head Dec. 13, 2010, when WASI members packed a Wasilla City Council meeting the night the council was voting on whether to grant WASI $36,000 for its nutrition program. The council got an earful from about a dozen seniors complaining about the loss of staff, reduction in gym hours, poor quality of the food and the inaccessibility of the board and its leaders.

Councilwoman Dianne Woodruff, who owns her own accounting business, told Kaplan and Straub she wasn’t impressed by budget documents they submitted to the council and wanted to see more proof of the organization’s solvency and solid management practices before she could agree to hand over the $36,000.

The council voted 3-2 against the grant, but left the door open to future discussions with WASI.

During the Jan. 13 Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. board of directors meeting, it appeared the board and Kaplan were making a genuine effort to be more open and accessible to members and the general public.

“It’s a start,” Woodruff said after the meeting, encouraged by steps made by the board to provide copies of budget documents and open up vacant board seats to interested members.

But seniors say all those warm and fuzzy feelings turned to ice after Atwood’s firing by Straub and the subsequent closure of the fitness center on or around Jan. 20.

In a Jan. 20 resignation letter Atwood wrote to Straub before she realized she was being fired, the former Alaska fitness champion told Straub she was surprised to learn in a Jan. 18 e-mail that Straub considered her a “hostile employee” and that Straub would no longer communicate with her.

“At your request I submitted an independent contractor agreement. I have been very cooperative with the myriad changes made to my employment including a demotion and reduction in pay,” Atwood’s letter to Straub states. “I have been extremely responsive to all your directives however nonsensical they had been. You have been unavailable each time we have had a scheduled appointment to discuss my employment terms.”

Atwood goes on to say that when she arrived at the Wasilla Senior Center on Jan. 19 to work at the gym, she was denied access to the gym and to the administrative offices because the locks had been changed.

Later that day during a membership meeting there, WASI management announced that Club50 Fitness was closed and services were discontinued, Atwood’s letter goes on to explain.

“Since this department is where I work, I came to WASI to ask if I had a job, but no one was available to answer that question so I left expecting a telephone call or e-mail, but there was no communication,” Atwood’s letter states. “Your 1/18/11 e-mail makes it abundantly clear that you cannot resolve any employment issues as you are refusing to speak with me. You leave me no alternative but to resign.”

Reached by phone Jan. 24, Atwood tearfully told the Frontiersman she’s most distressed not by the fact that she’s out of a job, but by the seniors being without a fitness center and someone to work with them in the ways that benefit them the most.

“I loved to see the joy on their faces when they became stronger or were even able to walk a little after being in a wheelchair for so long,” she said. “That is what it is all about. It’s not about me or anyone else working there in the past or in the future. I know they taught me much more than I taught them. I truly loved them like family.”

The center’s new activities director, Pat Brown, did return a message Frontiersman staff had left for Straub.

Brown, who had only been on the job a few days, said he’d been hired part-time through a special state program called Mature Alaskans Seeking Skills Training. He suddenly lost his sight about three years ago due to a rare condition and only gained partial vision in one eye after a few operations, he said.

He had been calling Bingo at the center on Wednesdays and even made some statements in support of the seniors at the Jan. 13 WASI board meeting. He said Straub called him recently to ask him if he could step in to help them out at the center.

Brown said any gym fees already paid by seniors to use the fitness center during its closure will be “cheerfully” refunded.

“Our goal is to have the gym open from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., based on volunteer availability,” Brown said. “Not all the details are worked out yet, but we want to get those bones moving and loosened again as soon as possible.”

Although he wasn’t sure of the status of the $135,000, three-year grant from the Mat-Su Health Foundation for WASI’s Enhanced Fitness program, Foundation Executive Director Elizabeth Ripley said Thursday she’s aware of the inner turmoil going on at WASI, but that the grant is not in jeopardy at this time.

“We provide for all grantees a great deal of technical assistance,” Ripley said. “It’s not uncommon for grantees to have struggles. We understand circumstances can change. Sometimes we decide to delay a grant for a few months until things stabilize. We’re very committed to WASI being successful with their fitness program.”

Ripley said she’s encouraged to know that the fitness center has had meaningful impacts on those who’ve used it.

“That’s a wonderful take-home from this,” she said. “We know it means a great deal to the seniors.”

Efforts by the Frontiersman to reach WASI Board Members Mary Sears, Stan Mitchell and Katie Carney this past week for comments were unsuccessful. Mitchell submitted a Spectrum column for this issue of the Frontiersman (page A6) in response to WASI member Elsie O’Bryan’s Jan. 25 Spectrum piece.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.McKee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.