Take part in fitness celebration at Chavis Park

Dancing in the Park, a fitness dance celebration at Chavis Community Center in Raleigh, is trying to reduce those numbers. Southeast Raleigh Assembly Inc. started the eight-week fitness series to reduce cardio-vascular disease and obesity.

“I thought it was important that we come up with some kind of creative way of getting people to exercise,” David Brown with Southeast Raleigh Assembly said. “It's a jump start and I'm glad to see children involved.”

Kendra Arnold took her mother, Edna Hinton, to the dance celebration so they could get fit together.

“I'm pretty much a couch potato, and I always talk about losing weight, and I don't do anything about it. And when she (Kendra) found out about this, she came home and tossed the flier at me and said, 'You are going to this,'” Hinton said.

The mother and daughter fitness team sees Dancing in the Park as a bonding experience, with long-lasting health benefits.

Obese people are at higher risk for health problems associated with cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes.

Helping people maintain a healthy weight helps not only the individual, but the community as a whole.

“It reduces the burden on the state, reduces insurance claims to the insurance industry, and people have more productive, healthy lifestyles,” Brown said.

Dancing in the Park will be held at Chavis Park at 505 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. for the next seven Mondays. It is free and open to the public.