This is a digitized version of an original watercolor rendering of the center.

Special to UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (January 13, 2016) – When the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center first opened its doors two decades ago this January 16, it was one of the first, if not the first, college or recreation center to include “wellness” in its name and base its entire mission on a lifestyle of health and wellness. As Norm Parsons, former executive director of the Patti & Allan Herbert Wellness Center, once said, “You get an education at the University of Miami and a life at the Wellness Center.”

The entire UM community is invited to attend the Herbert Wellness Center’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on Tuesday, February 2 at 4 p.m. to celebrate the past, honor the present, and look forward to a bright future. The event promises great food, special guest speakers, and dance performances reminiscent of the 1990s from UM club sport dance groups. The event is free but RSVP is requested.

“The Herbert Wellness Center is a unique place at UM,” says Scott Levin, executive director of the facility. “Few places on campus bring together current students, alumni, employees, and other guests all focused on improving their lives through fitness, wellness, and recreation.”

The idea of an all-inclusive wellness center at UM began in the late 1980s after Parsons attended a national wellness conference. At the time, UM’s Lane Recreation Center was quickly becoming too small and too limiting for the needs of the campus.

A major step to building an all-inclusive facility took place in 1992, when three student leaders helped devise a student body referendum to raise money for a new facility. The referendum passed and three UM alumni were brought in to help plan, design, and build the facility. Upon its opening, then-UM President Edward T. “Tad” Foote II said, “No new facility could have been better received than the Student Wellness Center has already been in the few days since its opening.”

Within its first decade, the facility was such a hit that it  quickly outgrew its space. Lifetime supporters of the University of Miami, the Herberts—Patti, B.B.A. ’57, and Allan, B.B.A. ’55, M.B.A. ’58— donated funds to support the facility, including the expansion completed in February 2011.

Since the center opened 20 years ago, more than 12 million people have walked through the doors. Each day approximately 2,500 people take advantage of the facility’s 18,000-foot fitness room, four multipurpose rooms, four indoor courts, indoor swimming pool, and many other spaces. Just over 9,500 student members checked in at least once during the fall 2015 semester, which is 75 percent of all student members. Mirroring what President Foote noted, the Herbert Wellness Center has been and will continue to be one of UM’s premier spots on campus.

Read more about the Herbert Wellness Center’s history here and become a part of its story by attending its 20th Anniversary Celebration on February 2.