East Point, Ga. — Mother-daughter owned Dynamic Duo Fitness seeks to encourage healthy living for all generations in the city of East Point.

‘Strong and sexy at any age!’

This emphatic statement along with several other slogans of affirmation will be what anyone who visits the family-owned workout facility, Dynamic Duo Fitness.

Tucked behind the rear-side of The Wagon Works complex at Suite 107 on 2801 RN Martin St., East Point’s newest fitness facility just celebrated a ribbon-cutting a couple of weeks ago.

Who is Dynamic Duo Fitness?

Owned & operated by mother/daughter combo, Rhonda ‘Rho’ Shelton (mother) and Lakeisha Varner (daughter), this ‘dynamic duo’ selected Tri-Cities to open their gym as the go-to resource for health and wellness for the community and families of East Point and beyond.

“It was through fitness that we discovered our power. It was through that that I discovered my personal power, I discovered that I was actually strong and that is what helped to catapult me forward,” Varner tells Vox Pop ATL.

The mother/daughter team also serves as the facility’s fitness instructors. Dynamic Duo Fitness’ mission is to provide overall physical health, including mental health and nutritional wellness through a comprehensive fitness experience.

Both longtime fitness advocates, Shelton & Varner originally hail from the Northeast, specifically New York City, and have called the Southside their home for nearly the past twenty years.

‘We want to be a one-stop-shop in East Point for health and wellness,” emphasizes Shelton.

‘We want to extend that to our community to our people who are suffering from diseases and illnesses that can easily die are easily alleviated with a healthy diet and some fitness classes.”

The newly-opened facility offers a wide array of fitness classes including but not limited to; cardio kickboxing, Zumba, Xtreme hip-hop, and others each designed to accommodate classes of every fitness level, in-person or virtually.

Dynamic Duo Fitness also provides meal prep recommendations as well as other forms of nutritional guidance for individuals or families seeking to achieve their fitness goals.

The ribbon-cutting event for Dynamic Duo Fitness featured music, light hors d’oeuvres for attendees, as well as raffle prizes, and a tour of the facilities.

When asked which superhero ‘dynamic duo’ they would see themselves as?

Rho and Lakeisha told Vox Pop ATL, ‘The Wonder Twins,’ the super-powered tag team whose abilities are activated in the presence of one another.

Sounds like the perfect answer to me.

The address is as follows:
Dynamic Duo Fitness
2801 RN Martin St., Ste 107
East Point, GA 30344
(Located in the rear parking lot of The Wagon Works)

For more information about Dynamic Duo Fitness, visit their website.

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City officials, non-profits, and local charter school help to celebrate the memory of student with ‘Buddy Bench’, balloon memorial, and new mural. 

EAST POINT, Ga. — On the evening of Friday, November 6th, 2020, 11-year-old Ty’Rell Simms was headed home from his grandmother’s house with a friend. Tragically, he never made it — but his story and his legacy do not end there.

Victim of a drive-by shooting that had absolutely nothing to do with him, Simms left behind a grieving family struggling to cope with their senseless loss and a community left without their classmate, teammate, and friend.

Known for his natural athleticism, generous spirit, warm smile, and overall good nature, Simms touched the lives of many in the Tri-Cities in his brief eleven years. 

During the unpleasant undertaking of finding ways to commemorate Simm’s life, his fellow scholars at KIPP South Fulton Academy (KSFA) envisioned ways to commemorate his life. 

The Beta Club at KIPP Academy, where Simms had just begun his fifth-grade school year under pandemic distance learning approached the faculty and staff about a ‘Buddy Bench.’

The ‘Buddy Bench project’ is a relatively new initiative where plastic bottle caps and recyclable plastic items are repurposed into a functional memorial or ‘buddy bench’ in someone’s memory. 

“Our Beta Club scholars came to us wanting to find an outlet for celebration, for grief or just having a way to feel afterward,” recalls KSFA Literacy Coach, Kathryn McClinton.

“They came up with the ‘buddy bench’ idea so we could collect caps in his honor and create a bench where people could actually come and sit, and remember him while also forming bonds with other people.”

The goal of the daunting task of gathering 400-lb of plastics through donations, both local and abroad to create Simms’ memorial bench.

The cap collection process was spearheaded by a fellow athlete and community youth leader, CJ Matthews. While Matthews did not know Simms personally, he was so moved by the news of his passing, he felt compelled to contribute somehow.

Matthews is the co-founder and CEO of Blankies 4 My Buddies, an award-winning community non-profit that has been behind such community events as The Giving Bowl, and COVID Care Package.

Through its #Tops4Tyrell initiative, Blankies 4 My Buddies has collected donations from as far away as Columbus, Ohio. 

Family-friend and local pastor, Ray Waters solemnly recounts to Vox Pop All, the morning he received the call with the heart-breaking news of Ty’rell’s passing.

“It’s five minutes before church, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to talk about, and I get a call, and it is from Conrad’s (Ty’Rell’s father), brother. Scooter told me that Ty’Rell had been shot the night before and had died,” laments the Village Church pastor to Vox Pop ATL. 

“My whole life as a pastor, I’ve been called and told that something tragic that had happened — but nothing like that.”

East Point Parks & Recreation also contributed to Simms’ legacy by partnering with KSFA and the newly-founded community beautification program, Art in the Paint to paint the basketball court at Brookdale Park in East Point.

Other local companies that have contributed to the causes involving Ty’Rell are including the following:

Drip-Thru Coffee

Treat Love

Kupcakerie

For all the news that’s fit to click? Visit the Vox Pop ATL website and subscribe for news updates on Facebook.

In partnership with Food Well Alliance and the ArtsXchange, East Point welcomed the beginning of growing season with community artisans market

EAST POINT, Ga. — As Summer 2021 draws near here in metro Atlanta, dozens of events and activities both new or perennial have begun sprouting up around the city. 

This time last year, everything from beauty and barbershops to blockbusters and the Braves had already or were about to shutter in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown.

Tucked behind Main Street just a couple of blocks away from Langford Parkway, the grounds in and around the ArtsXChange facility was bustling with activity on Saturday, May 1st.

Located on Newnan Street in Colonial Hills, the ArtXChange facility occupies the grounds once inhabited by the Jere Wells Elementary School. 

Last Fall, the community cultural center whose called East Point its home for the past couple of years, began implementing outdoor artisan markets as a part of its Cultural Connections program. The May Day Field Day marking its first artisan market for 2021. 

Vox Pop ATL spoke with the city of East Point’s recently implemented Urban Agricultural Manager, Tenisio Seanima about the bucket garden giveaway and some of the city’s plans. 

“Today, we actually gave away some bucket gardens where people can literally just take a bucket with a plant in it back home and grow their own food,” states Seanima.

“We’re allowing people to come out support the different artists that are here at the market, but in addition to that, people actually come and learn about different agricultural activities.”

Seanima tells Vox Pop that this would be the first of many Field Days that the city has planned with the ArtsXChange as a part of East Point’s newly-enacted Urban Agricultural Plan.  

“We are the first city in the southeastern region of the United States to actually have a comprehensive plan that includes a segment devoted to urban agriculture, and my job is to help initiate the process of making that plan come to life. So, it’s an exciting time,” Seanima shares.

Vox Pop ATL spoke with one of Field Day vendors, Wendy Golding, owner/operator of Greatest Of All Pops or GOAP. The Hapeville-based, vegan ice cream company has only been in business for the past 6 months.

“The community has been amazing, and I really get all of my vibes and energy from the community. Everyone has been so supportive and so helpful,” proclaims Golding. 

“So, I made a point to source only local Black-owned and minority farms for all my fruits. So, buying a pop is more than just buying a pop. It’s literally putting money back on other people’s tables but it’s also giving this Black girl hopes and dreams and just the ambition to keep going.”

The May Day Field Day event was the first open-air market held in the Tri-Cities this year but certainly will not be the last. 

For more information about the city of East Point’s Agricultural Plan, click here to see the draft in its entirety, and for more information about the ArtsXchange community cultural center, visit their website.

For all the news that’s fit to click? Visit the Vox Pop ATL website and subscribe for news updates on Facebook.