By DONNA RILEY-LEIN

STAFF WRITER

drileylein@gulfcoastnewspapers.com

Take a life-long interest in fitness and healthy eating. Add a small dash of “empty nest.”

Add training and certification. Add a daughter that shares her mother’s interest in healthy living.

Mix well and you have Stardance Wellness Center on County Road 6 in Gulf Shores.

The property is along the Bon Secour River with fine views and one of the homes in the compound can be set up (with the owners cooking) for a business dinner. Plans are underway to open the property up for weddings as well.

The center is owned by Mike and Pam McCurley, and their daughter, Shannon McCurley, is also part of the operation as a personal trainer.

The McCurleys take full advantage of their setting.

“We sometimes have group workouts at the boathouse (which overlooks the Bon Secour River),” said Shannon McCurley.

But, the heart of the operation is the Wellness Center.

“She (Pam) started with a little gym in her house,” said Shannon. “It got so big, she added this on.”

“I went with Shannon to take some classes, and I loved it,” said Pam. “Then a friend of mine said, ‘train me.’ We cleared out a storage room and began.”

Pam quickly realized that in order to do things safely, she would have to become certified as a personal trainer. She and her husband, Mike did, and the Stardance Wellness Center was born.

For Shannon, personal training, “Has been a passion of mine for many years. I love watching people become empowered.”

Both women point to one of their clients, someone Pam works with, a 90-year-old man as one of their success stories.

“He couldn’t move,” said Shannon. “It (personal training) really made a difference.”

“He is really getting around better,” said Pam, noting that at times the client does not use his cane, and keeps up a regular round of activities in the area, something that was difficult before. She says he recently played his first golf game in a number of years.

In addition to a fully-equipped gym, both women say that clients are invited to dinners at the site.

Stardance prepares the dinner and then there is a talk about healthy eating.

“We are not nutritionists,” said Shannon, but we can help people get on the right path.”

Shannon went to Auburn for two years, has been certified as a trainer and is now working on a degree in exercise science. Pam has a certificate from The Cooper Institute in Texas.

The facility’s setting along County Road 6 in Gulf Shores is “off the beaten path,” Shannon admits. But that has some advantages.

“We are not intimidating,” she said. “This is not a sweaty gym, we are very different.”

Shannon added that there are plans to place a “fitness trail” through the woods on the property and  she hopes to establish an after-school fitness “boot camp” with climbing wall for youngsters.

“We want to make it fun,” Shannon said. “It will probably be an hour long. The idea is to get some exercise in.”

For Mike McCurley, the Stardance Wellness Center is”my wife’s dream.” The home builder says that Pam asked for a membership to a fitness club for Mother’s Day one year. Intrigued, he went along. And was hooked.

“We both got certified (as personal trainers)in November of ‘07,” he said.

The Wellness Center’s web page is at www.stardancetradingpost.com. The phone number is 251-609-9199.