For nearly a decade, a specialized fitness program in La Crosse has operated without a permanent home. However, the STAR Center is now ready to welcome people with physical limitations to its new gym on La Crosse Street, near West Avenue.
An open house for the public happens Saturday from 11 to 2, and the building will officially open for business on February 3rd. On Thursday night, board members were invited to a dedication of the STAR Center.
“The STAR Association has been doing adaptive sports and specialized exercise programs for almost nine years now,” says STAR president Virginia Wintersteen, a local physician. “We’ve never had a physical location, so we’re very excited about actually having our own facility.”
STAR is short for “Sports Therapeutic and Adaptive Recreation.” Its programs have been operating at Central High School and other sites. The organization was ready to construct its own building in 2020, until the COVID pandemic put the project on hold.
Wintersteen says the primary mission of STAR is to provide fitness programs to people “who have a challenge to physical activity, from a disability or a medical reason, that they can’t participate in traditional recreation.”
Until now, people taking part in STAR’s recreation programs have gone to locations including Central High School, and the Concordia Ballroom, which is just down the street from the STAR building.
