 AVAIL is an alternative high school within the Anchorage School District, created to give teenagers who have dropped out of their neighborhood school a second chance to earn a diploma. The school is located in the Anchorage Parking garage, where 60 students and five staff members share a mere 2800 square feet of office space.
Each semester, approximately 15 students enroll in the school’s Lifetime Personal Fitness class, an elective course offered in the afternoon. In 2007, AVAIL teachers Leslie Fleming and Traver Pierson saw the rising need for the use of a gym. Searching for a creative solution, they spoke to Gary Sossamon, the Vice President of Operations at the Alaska Club, and asked if he could be of assistance. A school business partnership was soon formed, and the students were given permission to exercise at the Alaska Club Downtown once a week during their gym class. The opportunity to utilize quality equipment and build lifelong healthy habits is an essential part of the class’s curriculum, and it would not be possible without the help of the Alaska Club.
“It’s been fantastic opportunity,” says Lifetime Personal Fitness teacher Leslie Fleming. “The students enjoy the variety of cardio machines allowing them to track their progress.”
AVAIL principal Gina Pastos echoes those sentiments. “This partnership is important not just for the credit opportunity, but also to promote physical fitness.”
The partnership is slowly expanding, and the staff at the Alaska Club now supports AVAIL’s job shadow initiative by acting as shadows for the students.
AVAIL posts information about the Alaska Club on the school’s website, and provides free advertising in its yearbook. In addition, some students have become paying members of the club.
Gary Sossamon and the Alaska Club have been very supportive of AVAIL’s program, and the students and staff are incredibly grateful!
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