‘BEE Fit’ program awards its success
Photos by Asli Shebe
Written by Asli Shebe
The 36 participants of the BEE Fit Wellness Challenge lost 200 pounds: an average of 5.5 pounds per person. The five teams trained for eight weeks to meet the goals they had planned for themselves both individually and as a group. On March 9, participants and coaches gathered together one last time for a reception at Club SCAD.
“The reception was very emotional,” said James Ives, fitness coordinator at Club SCAD. “The challenge was life-changing for a lot of people.” 
The teams met up one last time for brief reception that gave out awards for both the teams and individual participants who lost the most weight. After the awards, the participants challenged their coaches with an exercise program they created.
Team Green won the award for the most amount of weight lost overall; the most amount of weight lost by a participant was 21 pounds. There was also an award for the best coach, which was given to Fabio Bonacquisto, a third-year industrial design major from Tampa, Florida and coach of the Team Red .
“It was a really good experience. I met a lot of friends and learnt more about health and wellness. I learned that losing weight is not a hindrance, but an accomplishment to be proud of,” said Alisha Frier, a first-year graduate student studying for a double major in film and performing arts from Greenbelt, Maryland.
The BEE Fit program was composed of five teams: Red, Purple, Blue, Green and Orange. Each team had two coaches and consisted of seven or eight participants.
“I loved working in a group environment… getting to know everyone and build friendships. I definitely feel stronger,” said Sabrina Shankar, a first-year production design major from Long Island, New York.
“I really enjoyed it! I’m a person who likes to help people. I had fun doing workouts and getting to know the people on my team,” said Bee Fit coach and third-year graphic design major Annie Tyner from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The BEE Fit program began as a New Year’s resolution. Ives said the planning began in the spring quarter of last year and continued on until fall quarter. By winter quarter all the participants had been chosen and the teams arranged.
“We planned the thing out beyond belief,” said Ives.
The application consisted of basic information including height, age, sex, BMI and weight as well as a short personal essay explaining why they wanted to be part of the program. Bonacquisto, who worked 
with Ives to plan BEE Fit, stated that the main thing the organizers were looking for was either a motivation to workout and be healthier, or people who wanted to do so but completely lacked any motivation.
“We had 36 participants, I was expecting twelve,” said Ives. “I had not idea what to expect! I felt like this year was our third or fourth year doing it.”
Ives had done challenges before such as the Decathlon and Gladiator, which are more performance based. For the BEE Fit challenge Ives tried to reach out to a different demographic.
Ives added that “weight loss and a lifestyle change” was the point of the challenge. Ives began the program wanting to help students. Other universities — such as Armstrong — had great success with similar challenges, which is one of the factors that motivated Ives to bring the program to SCAD.
“I thought it went better than expected,” said Ives.
One of the goals of the program was helping students find a routine or diet that works for them and to stick to it.
“Whether it’s working out at the gym, your dorm room, apartment, house, Forsyth, Tybee it doesn’t matter where… It’s all about living a healthy lifestyle and making health and fitness a priority,” said Ives.
Both Bonquisto and Ives mentioned that the BEE Fit Wellness Challenge will continue and will take place again during winter quarter of next year. Students will be able to sign up the beginning of fall quarter.
Asli Shebe is a senior writing major from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She began working for District in 2014 as a staff writer, then copy editor, A&E editor, Chief Assignment editor and finally, Editor-in-Chief in 2017. Asli currently holds the record for obtaining the most job titles during her time at District. When she’s not writing for District you can find her biking around the Historic District of Savannah at odd hours of the day.
