To Health and Happiness

At first glance, Jenn Carter, Health and Fitness Director of the Vancouver Southslope YMCA, matches the fitness industry stereotype perfectly: she is blonde, bubbly and fit. After five minutes of conversation, however, it is obvious that the aerobics-instructor-turned-director takes her job very seriously and is quite good at what she does. There is a much more going on in her head than, as some people may presume, whether or not she looks good in her workout clothes.

When asked what her job includes, Carter's eyes open wide and she slumps back into her chair. "Everything. Everything you can imagine. It's busy."

At 29 years of age, Carter manages the entire YMCA fitness facility and pool, sits on various local and international committees, helps local health research authorities with child obesity issues, conducts workshops and courses within the Y and in the community, and still teaches fitness classes. She oversees 12 staff and 30 volunteers, as well as interacting regularly with the 6500 facility members. Her great work and positive attitude as director have made her well-known and well-liked within her organization.

The YMCA has four core values that everyone working and working out at the facility must respect: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. The smiles on its members and employees faces show that the organization is succeeding and everyone feels the warm results.

"For the most part I get up every single day and enjoy coming to work ... I enjoy coming to work and that's huge. I know there are so many people in the world who get up and dread it. 'Oh my gosh. I have to go to work again.' Me, I'm like, 'All right, let's go.'"

Carter started out as a dancer, moving from her hometown of Kelowna, BC to New York in her late teens to attend school and study dance. But that didn't last long as her fun-loving, people-person tendencies got in the way.

"Dance school was very strict, " she says. "You had to watch what you ate, get up early. Just the stuff that when you grew up in a small town and you move to one of the biggest cities in the world ... you don't want to do. You want to go out and explore and meet people."

Carter ditched dance classes and started working instead--at a preschool, at camps, at a bar. Ever since she can remember she wanted to be a teacher, so becoming an aerobics instructor--which includes both teaching and choreographing steps similar to dance--was a natural progression. While home in Kelowna visiting family in the summer of 1995, she took the first step in becoming a fitness group instructor by completing a fitness knowledge course through the BCRPA (British Columbia Recreational and Parks Association). In New York the next fall, she took a personal training course and a weight training course and started working at a gym. She fell in love with the fitness industry and after a total of five years in New York decided to move back to Vancouver to complete a degree in kinesiology.

Many people assume fitness lovers are vain. They picture people with swelled heads and hard bodies checking themselves out constantly in the mirror. In some cases this may be true, but a job helping others look and feel good about themselves can be so much more than that. Carter's work through the YMCA is an ideal example.

Nodding in appreciation when I make that statement, Carter explains. "I do a lot of work in the local high schools, presenting stuff on eating disorders and nutrition and whatnot. I do a lot of work at the employment centre downtown as well, for kids living on the street, teaching them about nutrition, teaching them about where to find help and stuff like that ... and, then, when you actually do find the help and you are working and making minimum wage, what's best to buy, to eat. That's very rewarding."

Is there anything Carter doesn't like her about her job?

"The pay is horrible but I don't care. It's one of those things where you work for an organization that gives so much back to the community and the world. You pay your bills at the end of the month and that is really all that matters."

The young fitness director recognizes that she will never be rich. On her present salary, it is highly unlikely that she will ever be able to afford a house in Vancouver, especially one with a backyard for her and her fiancé's future kids ... and dog, if her fiancé gets his way.

"But I love my job," Carter maintains. "Those are the sacrifices I'm willing to make. I mean, I'll just have to move somewhere else. I can still stay in the industry and in the Y--the Y is everywhere."

After talking with Carter I can't help thinking how great it would be if only we could all love our jobs so much. It would make the population just that little bit healthier and Carter's job a lot easier.