LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Sutter Lakeside Hospital (SLH) Wellness Center is teaming up with the Sutter Lakeside Hospital Foundation to raise $14,000 for much needed exercise equipment in its expanding gym and fitness facility.

Community members of all ages are invited to participate in FitFest and Fundraiser, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 15, at the SLH Wellness Center on the main hospital campus at 5176 Hill Road East in Lakeport.

Fit Fest and Fundraiser is an all day fitness festival geared to raise funds to purchase equipment for the gym, aerobics room and yoga studio.

A $20 donation gives you access to 16 different classes as part of our festival including Yoga, Tai Chi, Zumba, Pilates, Children’s Zumba, and more.

Also available are refreshments, questions and answers with staff, instructors, and practitioners, and raffle baskets.

“Hospitals across the country are combining ‘wellness care’ with ‘illness care’ as it makes sense that keeping individual’s healthy is the future of healthcare,” stated local cardiologist John Minotti, M.D. “The SLH Wellness Center promotes healing and assists individuals in their personal journey toward greater physical, mental-emotional, and spiritual health. I encourage the public to attend FitFest – to partake in the classes or to ask questions, take a mini-tour and to help us with this opportunity to make an investment that will return health benefits for years.”

In the Fall of 2010, the SLH Wellness Center had approximately 313 community members and hospital employees using its broad array of programs and services. Today, that number is more than 525 and continues to grow weekly. The SLH Wellness Center offers affordable memberships in a safe, clean and compassionate environment, and has scholarship opportunities.

Offering leading-edge programs such as those offered at the Wellness Center is one more way Sutter Lakeside Hospital is demonstrating its commitment to high quality health care and health improvement.

For more information on Fit Fest and Fundraiser 2011, please contact the SLH Wellness Center office at 707-262-5171 to speak with our staff about signups or to obtain a schedule of events.

To make a donation, please send your check to: Sutter Lakeside Hospital Foundation 5176 Hill Road East, Lakeport, Ca 95453 or call Tammi Silva, Development Officer, at 707-262-5189.

To learn more about Sutter Lakeside Wellness Center visit www.sutterlakeside.org/wellness or for more information on all of Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s funding priorities, visit www.sutterlakeside.org/giving.