Queen's to put donated fitness equipment to use in kinesiology department

Dumbbells, treadmills and stationary bikes will be used to help people recover from injuries or chemotherapy.

Some people don't think dumbbells as an important tool in cancer recovery.

But for kinesiology students at Queen's University, they see physical exercise like strength training as a way to see how the body recovers after chemotherapy and surgery.

The School of Kinesiology and Health Studies recently received a gift from Family and Children’s Services of Frontenac, Lennox and Addington in the form of free weights, machines, treadmills, ellipticals and stationary bikes. The equipment will be used for the Revved Up program, undergraduate teaching lab, and community-based cancer pre-habilitation and rehabilitation research program.

An official unveiling was held Thursday. After the ceremony, guests got a chance to get a tour of the facility.

Director of SKHS Samantha King says the equipment will be used to help recover from a number of ailments.

Family and Children's Services were looking to donate their fitness equipment to an organization in Kingston that would benefit from the gift.

King speaks to the collaboration between the two organizations that led to the donation.

Once the donation was finalized, the equipment was moved in and installed between semesters over the summer.

King says everything came very quickly but were able to coordinate a seemless transition.

King says the university hopes to continue working with organizations like FACSFLA to improve the lives of Kingston residents.

Story by Ken Hashizume