There can be only one: City and Chamber will combine efforts for summer health expo

Published 11:13 am Friday, April 20, 2012

When it comes to the battle of the fitness expos in Bonney Lake, last year’s conflict has turned into this year’s compromise.

The City of Bonney Lake had put on its Healthy Living Expo for five years when the Bonney Lake Chamber of Commerce introduced the privately run Get Fit Bonney Lake Business Expo, which took place just one week prior to the city event.

“Attendance was down at the Healthy Living Expo, and I don’t think it was great at Get Fit either,” Facilities and Special Projects Manager Gary Leaf said. “So the city and the chamber got together and basically decided there was no point in splitting attendance between competing events.”

The two parties decided to amalgamate their events into the Get Fit Healthy Living Expo. The Chamber seems to be taking the lead, as the expo is the flagship event of the Chamber’s “Get Fit Bonney Lake: 12 months to a healthy lifestyle” program, and will take place in the Prime Fitness parking lot, like the prior Get Fit incarnation.

The Healthy Living Expo may be said to survive, in an indirect way. In May, a new one-day festival, dubbed Family Fun Fest, will be held at Mountain View Middle School with a fitness theme. The festival will be a joint effort of the school district, the City of Bonney Lake and the Bonney Lake Chamber of Commerce with the support of the U.S. Department of Education, and—according to a press release—will build on the March Commu nity Summit theme, “The Heart of the Matter.”

“Why not add the equivalent of the Healthy Living Expo at a school for free?” Leaf said, adding that both public and private services will be represented.