Lombard promotes Fitness in February

Even if Lombard residents didn’t plan on it, many of them got a workout during the aftermath of the blizzard.

Shoveling snow gave residents one way to participate in Fitness February, a month with a focus on physical activity organized by Healthy Lombard.

“I think Mother Nature got wind of Fitness February and I think we all participated in one way or another,” Trustee Greg Gron joked at Thursday night’s village board meeting.

The village initiated the month with a ceremony before the board meeting honoring 18 residents — many of them children — for actions to improve their physical fitness.

“We know February is about the time when people make a resolution in January and it doesn’t really follow through,” said Jay Wojcik, who founded Healthy Lombard in 2009. “Fitness February is a good time to remind people that they really want to be physically fit.”

This is the first year the village has dedicated a month to its efforts to address childhood obesity and promote healthy living, she said. Fitness February will become an annual observance, according to a village proclamation.

The month coincides with the launch of the Healthy Lombard initiative’s website, healthylombard.cloudprofile.com, that lists the 22 organizations participating in the effort and provides resources about getting overweight children moving, losing weight or beginning a workout program.

“It’s like one-stop health shopping,” Wojcik said.

The youngest winners of the Fitness February award were 4-year-old twins Nick and Vince Irion.

The boys have been working out at Iron Dragon Innovative Training Facility in Lombard for nine months, said their mother, Nicole Irion. They learn strength training skills, compete in obstacle courses and run drills to practice for snow football, said their father, David Irion.

“I think that when we were growing up, we didn’t do a lot of the video games, we were outside, and we want to encourage that,” Nicole Irion said.

“And they enjoy it,” David Irion said, adding the couple’s two daughters, 8-year-old Gianna and 6-year-old Daniella, also are active in dance and poms.