As we continue our look to some items we said goodbye to in 2022, it goes without saying that a lot of those had to deal with schools. And that includes one item that was no longer a school, but resided in what used to be a school. At the end of the month of August, Chip and Sharron Runyan announced their retirements and closed the Roselawn Fitness Center. They had purchased the old Roselawn School Building in 1989, and began to work on their dream of building their own fitness and aerobics center. Sharron recalled, she was a little nervous at first. But she realized that her husband Chip saw something.
Sharron Runyan spent numerous hours teaching aerobics; just one part of what the Roselawn Fitness Center meant to so many during the years Chip and Sharron Runyan operated it in the old Roselawn School building.
AUDIO: I think he was so excited about it, and had such a vision, that it helped me. It’s hard to kind of leave it. But at the same time, it’s time for somebody else to come up who’s 35-40 years old like we were; and pour all kinds of stuff into it and have the people and enjoy doing what they’re doing. You know, we did that. We had a preschool down there, a daycare, this that and the other, and all kinds of things.
And Chip admitted, during that last week of operation, once they got things going, they felt it would last forever. And for a long while, it did.
AUDIO: I just forgot that the owner was getting older. And so it’s been a great project; so glad that we did it. We can’t wait to see the next people come in and continue keeping very good care of this building; and that would be a blessing.
And just a reminder that Chip Runyan can be reached to talk about that very topic, the future of the Roselawn School building, at 217-918-5514.
Tomorrow, we continue our look at goodbyes that involved school buildings in 2022, before we look Friday at the biggest “hello” we had in the area in 2022.
