At Mission College, Fitness Walk Finally Crosses Finish Line

New athletic complex -- with a 3-court gym, fitness room, jogging track, and other amenities -- fulfills years-long dream for the campus

When students walk up to receive their long-sought degrees at a graduation ceremony, the applause and cheers ripple through the audience of family and friends.

Often, though, parents may have a look of reflection and wonderment on their faces because they know how long that walk has been. They remember the long struggle, the obstacles that inevitably appear, leaving the outcome in doubt.

Such feelings were on the minds of Dr. Adriana Barrera, Leslie Milke and John Klitsner at Los Angeles Mission College as they took part in the Feb. 20 dedication ceremony for the Health, Fitness & Athletics Complex.

“When we walk through here,” said Milke as she and Klitsner welcomed the student body and the public through the doors, “we still look at each other and say, 'We can’t believe it.' ”

Understandably so. Klitsner, director of athletics at the college, has been on the campus for 22 years, Milke, chairperson of the health and physical education department, for 18 years.

And they’ve been working on erecting this center all that time.

“We've probably programmed this building ten times,” Milke said. “It was an exercise that we did every couple of years, but nothing ever came of it. To put it on paper and then to see it now is something.”

Barrera, now deputy chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, dedicated herself to fund-raising for the bond ballot proposition that funded this project when she was Mission College president.

Mission College had a goal of raising $10,000 to support the proposition.

“There was very little industry here,” Barrera said. “Basically, this was community that had been impoverished, so that (monetary goal) seemed like an insurmountable task for us.”

But by concentrating on small events – Barrera became known as the “queen of the nickel and dime fund-raisers” – the goal was reached.

“It was the people at Mission College, the faculty and the staff, who had long thought about this building and what it could bring to the community,” Barrera said. “But it wasn't until 2001 when we were able to pass Prop A, the first bond measure for this District, that we were able to put some reality to those dreams.”

Reality is a two-story, 89,500-square-foot structure and a basement and exterior service area three-tenths of a mile from the main campus.

The complex has a three-court gymnasium suitable for basketball and volleyball, an elevated, three-lane jogging track, a weight-fitness and cardiovascular workout area, five classrooms, three multipurpose rooms, a training room, locker rooms and offices.

“The facility we had before,” Milke said, “was a rented warehouse about a mile and a half away. Our students are absolutely thrilled because they went from nothing to top of the line. We had some weight-training classes in the warehouse and some activities like aerobics. But we didn't have a full compliment of classes because we didn't have a gymnasium.”

“My biggest joy was a few weeks ago when we opened the building for the first time. For all the hard work and all the stress we were under, seeing the looks on the faces of the students as they walked in was the most satisfying experience I've had in my lifetime. Their jaws were open. They were so excited.”

And for good reason, said Klitsner.

“We have a facility absolutely second to none,” he said. “There is not a facility in the state of California at the community college level, or maybe even at the university level, that compares to this.”

Dan Rosales, who was at the ceremony representing City Councilman Richard Alarcon, praised the new building that will serve both the college and the surrounding community.

“There's an old Native American belief,” Rosales told the crowd at the ceremony, “that the two greatest gifts you can bestow on someone are wisdom and health. This fitness center is a grand step forward in accomplishing that mission.”