By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
More than 70 persons attended an inaugural event featuring outdoor exercise and strong
morning coffee held in the city’s historic Greenwood Park on Saturday.
The event, dubbed “Pilates + Lattes,” was sponsored by the city of Del Rio and Cardinal
Points Coffee, 115 E. Greenwood St. Organizers said it is the first of four events being
planned over the course of the long Del Rio summer, each to be held on the first Saturday
of every month.
A southeast breeze cooled the grassy park as participants arrived and laid out their
exercise mats in the shade of the towering pecans and spreading oaks.
Cheyenne Pena, who grew up in Del Rio and who currently lives in Austin, led the
session and spoke to The 830 Times about the event.
“We’re here today doing the first of a series of four free ‘Pilates at the Park’ events for
the city of Del Rio. We’re just a community, an organization, and our mission is to help
spread wellness, health and recovery practices for the city. Our mission is to make it
affordable for everybody so that we can get more people moving,” Pena said.
Pena said she works in a senior living community in the Austin area and really believes
that regular exercise is “the fountain of youth.”
“I work with seniors who are 85, 90 years old. I have a 104-year-old who comes to my
classes. I lead and instruct all of their exercise classes as their wellness director, and it
amazes me how active they are and how much they’re doing. Exercise really is the
fountain of youth, and we want to bring more of that here to this area, to Del Rio, and
that’s how my sister and I came up with the idea,” Pena said.
Kaitlyn Lopez, Pena’s sister, also spoke about her role in organizing the event.
Lopez works as a retail store manager in Del Rio and says she’s always been “pretty
active.”
“Our friend owns the gym on 12 th Street, so we grew up together, working out together
and again, always moving our bodies. Pilates is new to me; I am undergoing a
certification right now, but this is a learning experience for me as well,” Lopez said.
Lopez said Pilates is an exercise discipline that involves using your own body weight and
concentrates on mobility, flexibility and stretching.
“It helps with your joints and of course your muscles. We’re really excited to bring this to
Del Rio. In Austin, this is all over the place, but in Del Rio, we really don’t have a lot of
things like this. And again, this is a learning experience for both of us, and we’re really,
really excited about it,” Lopez said.
Angela and John Leija, who own and operate Cardinal Points Coffee, which features
locally-roasted beans sourced from the far corners of the globe, were also on hand to
serves up glasses of cold brew for those who participated in the class.
John Leija said, “This was an event that the city was helping out with, and it’s really
locals supporting locals, so I thought it would be cool to hook up with the city and see
how many people participate. There’s really a lot of people here this morning. This is an
amazing turnout, and we are blown away.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
