WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The new fitness pad on Stetson Road includes a series of differently sized blocks that facilitate step exercise for people of varying ages and abilities.

 

The pad itself is just one step in the town's plan to take advantage of the Mohican Trail multi-use path.

 

"The multi-use path will serve as a spine for recreational opportunities," Town Manager Robert Menicocci said Wednesday during a kickoff event to celebrate the pad's opening. "We have a strategic plan to add more opportunities for the community.

 

"You see the skate park behind here. Through the [Community Preservation Act], the town has funded an initial design phase for its replacement. We're also looking at maybe adding basketball courts [alongside the fitness pad]. Further down [the Mohican Trail], there are our tennis courts and our off-leash dog park."

 

Menicocci used Wednesday's celebration as an opportunity to thank all those who have made possible such improvements to the town's recreational opportunities, including state Rep. John Barrett III, who attended the event. Menicocci credited the state representative for helping to secure the last bit of funding needed to complete the 2.5-mile trail that planners hope someday to link up to the Ashuwillticook Trail in Adams.

 

"I was on that field 60 years ago playing Little League baseball," Barrett told the dozens of people who attended the event, indicating the Bud Anderson Field across Stetson Road. "I look now at how far the community has come in so many ways.

 

"You have made a permanent commitment to what's important in the community. It's going to be a benefit to everybody."

 

Select Board Chair Stephanie Boyd, who joined a dozen participants in a demonstration of the pad's features led by personal trainer and town resident Ashleigh Yager, made the same point.

 

"Being physically active is so important and provides so many benefits for all age groups," Boyd said.

 

She noted that physical activity can help ward off diseases, boosts mood and energy, promotes better sleep and "provides the opportunity for social engagement."

 

"So many people use the trail on a daily basis," Boyd said, before listing other outdoor recreational opportunities the town has added in recent years. "We have a new track at Mount Greylock [Regional School] that Williams College helps with. We have new trails thanks to the folks at Rural Lands. We have the new mountain bike trail.

 

"Everyone should put down your devices, head outside, get fresh air and move their bodies."

 

Menicocci's list of partners to thank in making the fitness pad happen started with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which provided the town a grant, and the National Fitness Campaign, which designed the pad. The town manager also thanked town residents who supported the project through their Community Preservation Act tax expenditures approved at town meeting and the town's Department of Public Works.

 

"The Public Works team was also a financial lynch pin for this project," Menicocci said, explaining that the town employees did all the site work for the pad, saving the town thousands of dollars that otherwise would have been contracted out.

 

Heidi Fountain of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts spoke for the insurer and the National Fitness Campaign, a movement that has been "taking the gym outside" since 1979 in the words of founder Mitch Menaged.

 

"One of our priorities [at BCBS Massachusetts] is to provide free and equitable outdoor recreation," Fountain said. "We are committed to helping Massachusetts residents lead healthy lives."

 

She noted that the court in Lee was the first in Western Massachusetts. According to the NFC's 2024 Impact Report, it had funded 627 courts nationwide.

 

"The goal of the National Fitness Campaign is that every American lives within a 10-minute bike ride of a free, outdoor fitness court," Fountain said.