Longtime Rockingham resident now managing FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness-Richmond
| Date Posted: 11/1/2010
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Kim Covington (right), the new facility manager at the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness-Richmond, is pictured with Richmond County resident and Health & Fitness member Amy Kesler. Kesler was Covington’s volleyball and softball coach when she was a student at Rockingham Junior High. |
ROCKINGHAM – Kim Covington lives in Richmond County and considers Rockingham her hometown. She’s lived there since she was 10 years old, even while working at various locations in the FirstHealth Centers for Health & Fitness program.
On Oct. 11, she became facility manager for the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness-Richmond, a position for which she seems uniquely well-suited.
“I’m really happy to be here, and I look forward to helping increase the Center’s role as the place where every member of the family can have a great fitness experience,” she says. “Richmond County is lucky to have a facility like this, and my staff and I plan to work hard at making it an even better place to come and work out.”
John Caliri, director of the FirstHealth Centers for Health & Fitness, calls Covington a “key leader” in FirstHealth’s medical fitness program.
“Kim’s education and experience, as well as her long history of common-sense solutions, make her ideal for the Richmond position,” he says. “She has an easygoing style that helps her excel. At the same time, her firm sense of business management will help Health & Fitness-Richmond find increased success.”
Caliri describes Covington’s long Richmond County connection as “an added plus for FirstHealth and for the community.”
“We hope that her knowledge of the area will help lead the Center to a more prominent and helpful role in the community,” he says.
Covington graduated from Richmond Senior High School, where she was a standout in basketball, tennis, golf and softball. She earned a B.S. degree in Exercise and Sports Medicine from East Carolina University, where she played varsity softball for two years.
While completing her degree at ECU, she worked as a fitness and cardiac rehabilitation intern at the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness-Pinehurst. After graduating, she took a part-time position as a fitness instructor at the Pinehurst Center and then became facility manager for the new Center for Health & Fitness-Raeford.
She managed FirstHealth’s Health & Fitness facilities in both Raeford and Pembroke for eight years. Until she accepted the position in Richmond County, she served as facility manager for the Raeford Center with the additional responsibility for the full-service “firstspa” program in Pinehurst.
At the Center for Health & Fitness-Richmond, Covington manages the second-largest facility in FirstHealth’s six-center fitness program. With 30,000 square feet and a full- and part-time staff of around 40, the Richmond facility boasts a four-lane, 70,000-gallon pool as well as a full complement of group exercise programs; cardio- and strength-training equipment; martial arts, cardiac rehab, physical therapy and massage therapy programs; and an indoor basketball court.
For more information on programs at the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness, call (910) 410-0123.
