Beacon Raises the Flag on Health and Fitness

With a bulldozer, backhoe and excavator rumbling nearby, dozens of people gathered on October 8 to celebrate the start of construction for Beacon Health & Fitness. The new 67,000-square-foot center, located on Beacon Parkway just off the toll road in Mishawaka, will be the flagship facility for Beacon’s transition toward a true health model of care.

“We often think of Beacon, Memorial and Elkhart General as places to go for when you’re sick, ill and injured,” says Phil Newbold, CEO, Beacon Health System. “Increasingly, Beacon Health System is committed to the vision of creating the healthiest community possible. And that means we have to be where people live, where people go to school, where people work, where people want to have recreation – we have to be there helping them to make the healthy choice the easy choice.“

And while it will feature many of the same fitness components of its sister facility, the Memorial Health & Lifestyle Center in downtown South Bend, Beacon Health & Fitness will offer even more services in the prevention and management of disease and injury, including:
• Physical therapy
• Sports medicine
• Cardiac rehabilitation
• Exercise for arthritis
• Yoga for cancer patients and survivors

Plus, a 6,000-square-foot sports performance clinic will be a unique service for our community.

“The sports performance clinic, staffed with fitness coaches and certified athletic trainers, will serve not only area student athletes, but the athlete in all of us,” says Linda Mansfield, MD, Director of Sports Medicine for Beacon Medical Group.

“One of the hallmarks of this new facility is that people in every stage of health and recovery will be able to come and know they are receiving the safest, most effective care available from medical professionals,” says Alan Loyd, Director, Memorial Health & Lifestyle Center.

From a business perspective, the prime northeast Mishawaka location is at the geographic center for a population of about 600,000 people in Indiana and Michigan, which means this new Beacon campus is poised for long-term growth. Beacon Health & Fitness is slated to open in 2016.