But it was one thing to have such a mission and quite another to measure your success in achieving it. Debbie Lee was the one who came up with the mechanism. She remembered a project she had overseen when she was a coordinator of undergraduate programs at the University of Florida. One student had interned at Johnson & Johnson in Jacksonville, where she worked on the company's application for certification as a Well Workplace by the Wellness Councils of America. It turned out that WELCOA also had a program for certifying cities, based on the percentage of the work force in Well Workplaces, which the group defines as companies, organizations, and institutions with comprehensive wellness programs. Cities with 20 percent of their work force in such a program won the bronze, 30 percent took silver, and 50 percent earned the gold. One could argue whether a WELCOA certification actually constitutes the best measure of a community's health. But the program did lay out a plan of action that could be used to rally the community, and other cities had already participated, making it possible to compare results. And because no city had ever done better than a bronze, why not go for the gold?
But GHFC could do only so much by itself. If Gainesville was going to become the first Gold Well City, the community's movers and shakers had to get behind the effort. With that in mind, Cirulli and Lee approached Marilyn Tubb, who was then vice president for community affairs at Shands HealthCare, a University of Florida affiliate and operator of several hospitals around the state, and had just become president of the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. In short order, Tubb and Lee put together a steering committee of 16 people, including representatives of media outlets, health care programs, and local government. The committee immediately went to work building support for the campaign.
To win the award, at least 20 organizations had to participate in the effort and obtain their Well Workplace certifications within three years leading up to the submission of the Well City application. That called for a lot of work in a relatively short period of time. The organizations had to select coordinators, organize health fairs, get people screened for health risks, hold meetings, launch exercise programs, and so on. Shands HealthCare donated the health screenings. The Gainesville Sun contributed advertising. GHFC provided consulting, speakers, meeting space, exercise programs, whatever. And government officials from across the political spectrum put aside their differences to get behind the campaign. When word finally came in the spring of 2003 that Gainesville had won the award, hundreds of residents turned out to celebrate.
The rest of the fitness industry took note of the achievement and GHFC's role in it. Many clubs contacted Debbie Lee to learn more. Only a relative handful, however, launched Well City campaigns of their own. "People admire Joe for the way he's integrated himself into the community, but I don't think many of them try to emulate him," Napolitano says. "They feel as though they have a lot more pressing issues to take care of."
And maybe they do, or maybe they have overlooked what Gainesville Health & Fitness got out of the campaign from a business standpoint. Beyond signing up a lot of new members, the company firmly established itself as the wellness resource of the community. "I know that if I need help with anything, I can call GHFC, and they will always either provide it themselves or point me in the right direction," says Tracy Tompkins, who served as campaign coordinator at Naylor LLC, a custom-publishing and event-management company. "We wanted to become better organized around wellness, but we lacked direction and know-how," says Tompkins. Naylor now uses the program in recruiting.
By positioning itself as the city's wellness resource, GHFC has gained an enormous competitive advantage that its salespeople have been able to make good use of in selling to the corporate market. That advantage is certain to grow as health care costs continue to rise and more companies discover that a serious wellness program is one of the only responses they can offer. By the time the rest of the fitness industry catches on, however, Joe Cirulli will no doubt be on to the next big thing.
Whatever that next thing turns out to be, it will happen in Gainesville. Cirulli insists he has no desire to have a fitness center anywhere else. He loves his city, and the feeling is mutual. Three times GHFC has been named Business of the Year by the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce. Cirulli has received the Distinguished Entrepreneur for Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business Administration, in addition to being named Industry Visionary of the Year by the International Health, Racquet, and Sportsclub Association in 2005.
Along the way, Cirulli has become a walking advertisement for the power of positive thinking. He still owns the little Mercedes, but he mostly drives a Lexus these days. His parents live in a house he built for them in Gainesville. Cirulli has his own home there, as well as a beachfront place on Anna Marie Island. Once a week, he flies his A36 Bonanza, often to Sarasota, where he has a condo. Although he never made another list of goals for himself, he did get together in 1999 with his managers to draft one for GHFC. "We will be recognized worldwide as a model company for improving the health of an entire community," the document began. It then listed 10 goals for the next 10 years. The fourth was, "We will be on the cover of a leading business magazine."
Guess they can check that one off.
