Although Hurricane Sandy left the East Coast a few weeks ago, the signs of its visit — damaged buildings, flooding, demolished homes — still linger. Recovery efforts are still underway to help alleviate the damage Sandy left to homes and businesses, including health clubs such as The Sports Center at Chelsea Piers in New York, and more.
Chelsea Piers is still without power, after Sandy caused severe damage to the club’s electrical switchgear room. The facility also sustained flooding throughout the entire first floor. According to a message released to members by Greta Wagner, the general manager of Chelsea Piers, plans are in place to re-open the sports center on December 1, 2012.
Chuck Hall, the executive director of Big Vanilla, with two clubs in Maryland, described how his clubs prepared for the storm, which left one of its facilities without power for three days. “There’s a whole series of events leading up to the storm — you really work around the clock until it hits,” he said.
Hall and his team worked to secure the building and any loose debris, and bring in furniture. However, Hall said the most important step Big Vanilla made during storm preparations was printing off a list of the club’s prospects for its sales team, in case the club lost power. “When we did in fact lose power, we rallied our sales team and incentivized them to work from home — for every two sales they made, they received commission, and there was a personal and team bonus,” explained Hall.
Making the best out of a less-than-ideal situation, Hall’s sales team sold 50 short-term memberships at a discounted price during the three-day power outage. “When you lose power for three days, you lose the membership sales that you receive on a day-to-day basis — sales that members purchase everyday, such as coffee,” he said. “You can never get that back. It was important for us to keep the flow going. We didn’t miss a beat.”
With Sandy behind them, Hall and his team at Big Vanilla are looking ahead, and working towards helping individuals more adversely affected by the storm. “Every time a major catastrophe happens we can instantly put together a 24-hour event, charge a fee for a special class, and raise money to go towards that disaster,” said Hall. “We did that for the victims of Superstorm Sandy, and held a hurricane relief drive.”
Big Vanilla asked local vendors to donate trucks and supplies, and drove the donated materials to New York and New Jersey. “There was a phenomenal effort from the membership and local community,” said Hall. “The spirit of our membership really brought our club together. We look at ourselves as a refuge when a crisis is going on.”
Other clubs throughout the East Coast have displayed generosity in the aftermath of Sandy as well. New York Sports Club is offering Chelsea Piers’ displaced members a 30-day pass to all NYSC locations for $49.95, or a one-month pass to one location for $30. Displaced members also have access to Crunch Fitness locations for a reduced fee of $10 per day.
By Rachel Zabonick
