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This Delaware nonprofit is dedicated to strengthening health among youth, as well as developing skills for the outside world.
More Than Fitness is more than just a gym, says founder and head coach Jeremy Moore. Since its 2018 inception, the nonprofit has been dedicated to strengthening mental and emotional health among Delaware’s youth. “We work out, but that’s the vehicle to develop mentorship relationships,” Moore explains. “I tell students all the time, ‘I don’t care how fast you are or how much you can lift…I care that you develop skills that you can use in the outside world.’” Here, the real focus is on building resilience and discipline.
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The concept was born eight years ago when Moore returned from the Army, struggling with PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. He had maintained a close relationship with his high school football coach, who offered him the opportunity to teach a few athletes to lift weights. “I realized quickly how special it was,” Moore says. “I would share my experiences from [military] deployment and try to do more than just get them stronger.”
He also began to incorporate what he was learning through his own therapy and meditation. Soon, he was working with 40 students, and More Than Fitness seemed like a natural extension of that. To date, he’s helped over 100 kids, including Nate Hullinger, a member since his sophomore year and now a coach in training. The most rewarding part is “getting to work with these people who I’m close with and then seeing them use the things that they’ve learned in here out in the world,” Hullinger says.
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