Jenny Powell, a long-time fitness coach in Houston is to be leaving the community after 26 years. Having started her career in Merritt 1984 in the aerobics days, she came up north as the practiced slowly became more rounded and refined. She began teaching in the community hall’s non-profit gym before the equipment was moved to the Houston Leisure Facility where it remains to this day.
When asked about what fitness means to her, she said, “It’s something essential to your being” and that it’s a social thing too. Recalling a recent session with some senior ladies, she said one of the participants told her, “My mental fog is gone”, and how to her that summarized the importance of not only teaching people about how to take care of their bodies and minds but about a way of life. Powell hopes she instilled some love for the gym, and that though a lot of people are intimidated by the gym that there is no need to be: anyone can go to the gym.
Of all the things she treasures about Houston, it is the hospitality of its people and the natural beauty of the area that she will remember. “I don’t think that there is a greater view than driving towards Smithers.” says Powell, “That little piece of highway is like a little piece of heaven. I so often stop in Telkwa and sit by the river just for a few minutes, and just love it”. Jenny Powell is a humble paragon in her own right, and the legacy she leaves behind is a part of what made Houston what it is today.
