Dear Editor,
The shock of Gritman’s letter which announced the closing of our Martin Wellness Center, the timing, the manner in which this announcement was made, and the way it has otherwise been handled have upset, even devastated, those who have relied on the facility’s pool as a major wellness element in their lives.
Comprehensive research and creative vision will reveal that no other area facility is set up to make available so many services at one location, water-dependent exercise being a major and irreplaceable component. Those who saved it for us over twenty years ago knew this. And it has been doing it well.
Why close such a community treasure?
For over twenty years it has provided exercise opportunities for recovery and sustained health in a warm-water pool. Testimonies of the pool’s success as a place of self-healing abound: rehabilitation after accidents and surgeries, treatment for unhealthy weight and disease-related impairments, care for age-related conditions.
This pool saves us, even when other exercise cannot, from depending on doctor visits, keeps us out of assisted living, enables us to actively serve our community.
As insurance companies proclaim, but more importantly, as our health-givers insist, ounces of prevention are worth pounds of cure. Given its proven benefit to the community, the Jeff and Becky Martin Community Wellness Center must be sustained as a human-cost-efficient operation.
Please support our request to Gritman Medical Center to keep the pool running, and let us join together in finding a way to save it for the future.
Georgia Toppe