Historical March 1981 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Back in the late summer or early fall of 1979, Mrs. Georgia L. Buckowitz, the Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry for the city, received a phone call from the Perrier company.
The producers of Perrier water, a carbonated water beverage, wanted to know if the city would like a Vita Parcourse.
A what?
A series of exercise stations strung out along a running path, a do-it-yourself program for getting in shape the Perrier way.
The stations were being offered for free.
The city knew it could enlist the aid of a Navy construction battalion for installation, so the Parcourse was approved without opposition by the Park Board members.
The Navy’s construction battalion is a reserve unit that operates on weekends and for two weeks during the year, so the exercise stations sat in a supply. dump at Forest Park for over a year.
The Parcourse is situated just across Lindell.
It starts down by the handball courts, where there is parking and lockerroom facilities ($20 a year, 25¢ a day to use the lockers and the showers).
From there the Parcourse runs up Lindell along the bicycle path until the path turns South. Then the Parcourse loops back along Grand Drive, this side of the golf course.
There are 18 stations spaced out over a 11/2 mile path.
The first five stations are designed to warm you up, the sixth through the sixteenth tucker you out, and the last two or three bring your wheezing under control.
As George Kinsey, the commissioner of Parks, said, the Parcourse is very flexible: if one of the stations is full, you can use another station.
Most of the calls about the Parcourse have been on the order of ‘how can I get one,’ and not ‘golly, I really like it.’ Mrs. Buckowitz and Mr. Kinsey take this as a good sign.
The second most frequent type of call comes from golfers who think the stations are handsome. Perhaps exercise buffs are the strong, silent type?
Original photograph caption
Vita Parcourse exercise station in Forest Park. The Paper, March 1981, page 1. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Paper, March 1981.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1981_03.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
