A Mom’s Journey to Reimagine Play and Inspire a Fit Generation
How It Began
Reimagine Play is a Boston-based fitness company providing fun, play-inspired fitness and obstacle training experiences for children and families. The idea for Reimagine Play had been brewing years before when founder, Betty Francisco, a mother and former General Counsel for the luxury fitness brand Sports Club/LA, noticed that her two daughters were not learning the types of movement skills necessary for success in sports and other youth activities. When her girls began elementary school, they were getting one 40-minute physical education class per week, barely enough to learn basic moves such as jumping rope or scaling monkey bars, all things she did as a child. One daughter enjoyed playing basketball and baseball but the other was very shy and had an aversion to group sports. Their preference for playing video games and watching Sponge Bob reruns also made it more difficult to convince them to play outside.
Turning a Problem into an Opportunity
As an executive in the fitness industry, Betty understood the importance of regular and consistent exercise, but how could parents instill these values in their kids? The American Heart Association recommends that children and adolescents participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day. Yet, less than 50% of kids get this recommended amount of daily activity. Unfortunately, play and physical activity in modern society has shifted to indoors, in front of a screen, isolated and sedentary. Children today get less play time than their parents' generation. Sometimes play is altogether eliminated in lieu of competitive team sports and other structured activities that children often abandon by middle school. For the less athletically inclined or “creative” kids, few alternative non-competitive fitness focused programs exist. After searching for alternatives for her own kids, it was clear to Betty that other parents like her were seeking new ways to get their kids more active.
The Birth of Reimagine Play
Now an ex-corporate lawyer turned fitness entrepreneur, Betty is on a mission to provide an innovative approach to youth fitness that encourages children to move and play more, while developing a life-long passion for a healthy and active lifestyle. Reimagine Play was launched in May 2015 with the vision that children and their families should have challenging fitness and active play options that teach fundamental movement skills while also building individual character skills through teamwork and problem solving activities. Touting the motto “Play Strong, Play Hard, Play More!,” Reimagine Play provides parents with a much needed fun, yet challenging alternative to organized sports and is focused on filling a void for parents struggling to find unique and fun ways to integrate active play into their children’s lives.
Signature Program
Its signature program “On the MOVE (Movement | Obstacles | Velocity | Endurance)” is geared to children and families ages 5-12. On the MOVE takes an innovative alternative approach to exercise. Using equipment like agility ladders, cones, ropes, track hurdles and other obstacles, it’s a cross between America Ninja Warrior and the beloved elementary school Field Day. Classes are often done outdoors in parks which offer large open space. Feeling more like play than exercise, classes promote fun, physical activity and strength-building through primal-like play patterns and body weight exercises.
The class was developed through a series of pilots which sought to learn how kids enjoy playing and exercising. Francisco engaged her long-time personal trainer Ann Bruck to help develop the class format. Remembering the best workouts as those that use body-weight movements and games, rather than machines, Francisco and Bruck designed a “play-inspired fitness experience” that felt like fun play, but is a challenging, strength-building routine. Classes include an ice breaker, warm-up, fitness skill of the week, partner relays, obstacles, cool-down, stretching and a healthy eating tip. These key components help children build strength, and improve agility, coordination and overall fitness levels, the building blocks for playing competitive sports.
Reimagine Play is unique in that it also seamlessly integrates character education into its physical fitness agenda. Obstacle courses teach problem-solving and critical thinking skills while building core values such as resilience, confidence, teamwork, and self-regulation. As a group activity, Reimagine Play's program also provides a social environment to acquire personal and social behaviors contributing to good citizenship.
The program is offered in pop-up locations throughout Boston, including Chinatown, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, South End and Roxbury and upon request by parents. The On the MOVE program ranges from 4-6 weeks. As part of the program, kids go through a brief pre-and post-fitness assessment consisting of four activities (40-meter sprint, push-up, plank hold and long jump) to set goals. Even in these short periods of time, the post-assessments showed improved strength and speed. Many of the children had noticeably improved social interaction skills and language around healthy eating and lifestyle choices.
Kid-inspired, Parent Approved
Many of the movements, activities and games are inspired by how kids love to play and input is frequently sought from the kids on what they want to do in class. As parents saw the classes, some wanted to participate as well because it looked playful and fun and offered quite a challenging plyometric work-out. Knowing that parents are increasingly looking for ways to be active together with their children, Reimagine Play invites parents to participate in classes, as well as organizations like the Girl Scouts, or Big Brothers and Big Sisters seeking activities to do together with their Littles. Since our launch, Reimagine Play has served over 1,500 children across Boston.
Reimagine Play also partners with local schools, summer camps, and youth organizations to develop customized youth fitness classes as well as conditioning classes for sports team to help get players conditioned to play and maintain their endurance. Sports programs are tailored to enhance speed, agility and coordination, to help prevent injuries. This summer, Reimagine Play was the first youth fitness class offered as part of Boston Parks and Boston Public Health Commission's 2016 Summer Fitness Series. Reimagine Play also conducted its classes as part of several Boston-based youth summer camps, community health fairs and school field day activities.
What’s in store for the future?
As the concept continues to grow in popularity, Reimagine Play is poised for its next growth phase by designing unique obstacle/play structures and a specialty fitness and obstacle training center in greater Boston. Building on its passion for reimagining play to forge a “fit generation,” the proposed facility will be a fitness playground that will incorporate Ninja warrior-style obstacle courses, a Parkour park, fitness studios for adult and children’s classes, multi-function rooms for birthday celebrations, corporate gatherings, and other team or group-based activities. Stay tuned for more…
To learn more, visit www.reimagineplay.com or contact Betty Francisco, Founder and CEO at betty@reimagineplay.com.
