Collinwood Recreation Center

Beautiful center and it’s free! So sad that it’s not well maintained. A lot of the equipment is broken, and the pool could use a cleaning. The indoor track might as well be outdoors it’s so cold.

Ok, the fact that I didn’t know this existed until recently is just ridiculous. One day a few weeks ago, the teachers at my school had a Professional Day, part of which we spent touring the neighborhood of Collinwood with some Northeast Shores directors in order to highlight some of the cultural and family-​oriented locations in the area. Our first stop was the Collinwood Rec Center, located directly across from the entrance to one of lakefront Metroparks.
Our tour guides told us that this building used to be a K-​Mart and that the Rec Center opened a few years ago as a reinvention of the space, as well as making the entire thing a green building. We had two extremely kind and friendly ladies show us around the space, which includes various community rooms, computer labs, a kitchen, a HUGE pool with lots of kid-​friendly slides and shallow areas, a fitness center, a track, a large outdoor space, locker rooms, yoga, dance and art classes and… you wanna know the best part?
It’s all FREE. Yup. That’s right. FREE!
All the people who teach classes are volunteers. And they’re not crappy classes, either! I saw the art room, it is amazing how much stuff is in there. There’s a «kiddie room» (with limited hours) connected by a windowed wall to the fitness center so you can keep an eye on your little one while they play and you work out.
There’s ping-​pong and TV for school-​age kids who want to hang out after school. There are hot meals provided every day that serve the community members. Which means, if your family qualifies for free/​reduced school lunch, your kids can get breakfast and lunch at school and then dinner at the Rec. What a nice thing!
So, I tried this out for myself. Even though I am not a Cleveland resident, my membership is still free. I filled out my papers, got a pic taken and an ID number, and I used the fitness room that very day. I still cannot believe that I didn’t know this was so close to where I work.
Everything is clean and nice. I’ll be bringing the kids here later on so they can swim! Even if you don’t want to use the facilities, I advise that you check the Collinwood Rec out just to see the community-​based awesomeness it embodies.