Gold’s Gym locations in the Wilmington area are offering UNC Wilmington students free access to their workout facilities from mid-January to the end of February, officials announced last Thursday.

All three Gold’s Gym locations in Wilmington are open to students for free with a valid UNCW ID card.  UNCW paid Gold’s Gym for the student access with student fee money put aside for the Student Recreation Center expansion.

UNCW made the arrangement with Gold’s Gym due to a delay in renovations to the SRC expansion.

Michael Walker, dean of students, was credited as the driving force of the operation according to Tim Banford, general manager of the Racine Avenue Gold’s Gym. Walker also attributes the success of the operation to Vice Chancellor Patricia Leonard and Tim McNeilly, director of campus recreation.

Last fall semester officials projected the full SRC construction to be completed December, 2012, with a grand opening this January. As the end of January approaches, completion is being held up by final safety requirements.  

“As soon as we realized the opening of the existing part of the Rec Center was running behind, we wanted to get students access to a workout location sooner rather than later,” Walker said.

According to multiple e-mail updates sent out to UNCW students, the existing part of the SRC will remain closed for the next several weeks while construction  new portions of the facility are being worked on and are set to be finished around mid-March.