Politically Correct

Oh, boy. I've been a member of Curves for about 5 months. I also do a bootcamp kind of thing.

Curves has been criticized in the media (see links at the end) and in blogs. Turns out some of the information is disputed.

Update
The woman who owns the franchise I go to, Lisa Alter (who is, by the way, Jewish), forwarded this press release to me.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Becky Frusher 254.399.9285 x2502
Mobile: 254.723.3163

CURVES FOUNDERS’ MAKE LARGE CHARITABLE DONATIONS – BUT NOT TO RADICAL PRO-LIFE GROUPS
Heavin’s donations traced to organizations that promote
health and wellness for women and their families

WACO, TEXAS. . . April 30. . .Gary Heavin, CEO and Founder of Curves International, today disputed recent reports in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News that he and his company donated as much as $5 million to “radical pro-life groups” such as Operation Save America.

“Neither Curves International Inc., nor my wife, nor I gave money to Operation Save America or any other radical pro-life group. The newspapers in question flat out got it wrong”, Heavin said.

Heavin went on to point out that he and his wife support organizations that contribute to the overall health and wellness of women and their families in their local community of Waco, Texas. He specifically mentioned the work of Care Net, the Family Practice Center of McLennan County, and the McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Project. These organizations confirmed receiving support from the Heavins.

“We have received a generous pledge for $150,000 annually for five years from the Heavins”, said Care Net Director Cathy Sones. “The Heavin’s donation will help us provide health care services such as pregnancy exams, pap smears, vitamins and a planned adoption agency specifically to women who choose to follow through with an unwanted pregnancy.”

Family Practice spokesperson Allen Patterson said “We are a community healthcare center that provides the primary care to men, women and children of McLennan County. We serve more than half the vulnerable and underserved families in the county, and with the state budget crisis we were going to have to curtail many of those services. Gary and Diane Heavin made the largest donation in our history—$600,000 a year for the next five years to replace the cut in state funding—so that we could continue to meet those needs. Additionally, they donated another $150,000 a year to provide healthcare and health education for women, including wellness exams and pap smears.”

McLennan County Collaborative Abstinence Project. Director Dianne Hensley stated that her organization advocates and teaches abstinence programs in central Texas area schools. She also confirmed receiving support from the Heavins.

In discussing the possible ramifications of the erroneous reports in the California newspapers, Mr. Heavin said, “I’m confident that once our franchisees and members learn the facts – that we support women’s health groups, not militant pro-life groups – they will understand and support us. I’m just sorry the newspapers’ errors caused confusion.”

In addition to support for local women’s groups, the Heavins have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations like the Shriners Hospitals and recently paid for a new roof on the Natchez Children’s Home in Natchez, Mississippi. During the month of March, Curves facilities across the country collected more than 8 million pounds of food for their local food banks. Over the years, the Heavins have matched thousands of $1000 charity requests from their franchisees, with the money going to local branches of organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the Arthritis Foundation, and the American Heart Association.

The Heavins support education as well. They have created a $2 million college endowment for Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey. And recently, the media has been reporting the results of a Baylor University, 5-year, $5 million dollar medical study funded by the Heavins to conduct research into methods of improving women’s health.

Heavin said, “My wife and I are proud of our efforts to improve the quality of life for women and their families.”

About Curves
Curves offers a 30-minute workout that combines strength training and sustained cardiovascular activity through safe and effective hydraulic resistance. Curves also offers weight management counseling featuring a breakthrough, scientifically proven method to raise metabolic rate and end the need for perpetual dieting. Gary Heavin, Curves’ Founder and CEO, is the author of several books, including The New York Times Best-Sellers “Curves: Permanent Results Without Permanent Dieting” and “Curves On the Go.”

With more than 7500 locations and 3 million members worldwide, Curves is the world's largest fitness center franchise. For more information, please visit: www.curvesinternational.com.

Additional Contacts:
Care Net Pregnancy Center: Cathy Sones 254.753.5753
The Family Practice Center: Allen Patterson 254.750.8200
McClennan County Collaborative Abstinence Project: Dianne Hensley 254.399.9728
###

what follows is what I originally wrote. It seems somewhat in error now

But now here is a great post from Pound on the background of the Curves founder, how he's using Curves income to fund anti choice stuff, and how hard it is to do the right thing.

This woman says,

Heavin is free to do whatever he wants within the law. It's a free country. But I think that at least some percentage of the 2 million+ female members nationwide would have some opinion on his anti-choice support -- and those members are also free to do whatever they want within the law, including vote with their feet and their dollars

Squoogy told me about it.

The thing is, Curves is so damn convenient, in two ways: one is always nearby; I can go in, work out, and get out without waiting; no classes just go. Also I like the social aspect.

Comments

[Jen]

I just did a big ranty post about this too! Must be in the air. Yes, it is hard to do the right thing, and as Pound points out a boycott would mostly hurt the individual franchises, whose owners may or may not agree with Heavin. My year's membership at Curves is up this month, and I am choosing not to renew. However, in the letter I'm sending to the owner of my local franchise I'm explaining precisely that I have absolutely no problems with her or her facility, which is really a decent place, but with Heavin's "matching donation" policy that matches funds raised at franchises with donations to anti-abortion "family clinics." That's what I can do to be ok with myself, and I think it's a reasonable solution.

[liz]

Jenex was too modest, she really lays it out for you:

Jenex's quite well-written and temperate essay on the Curves' founder.

In the 700 Club article linked above, Heavin says, about running a business by "Christian" principles: "One of those principles is the law of integrity. What does that mean? You tell people the truth. And the law of unity, you can’t have unity without integrity, but if people can count on what you say, they can believe in you and you can work together."

Huh. What about leaving out pertinent information, such as where Curves' charitable donations really go? How is that "the truth?" I certainly never saw anything in my local franchise about Heavin's matching donations policy, although there were lots of flyers pushing his book and weight-loss seminars and specially formulated vitamins and protein drinks. It's interesting, too, that most of the information I found regarding this is positively slanted and from the conservative religious press. I found numerous articles at places like Time, CNN, and Fox which saluted Heavin's entrepreneurial successes without ever once mentioning his firm anti-choice stance or his support for people like Pat Robertson. He only seems to bring it up in venues he knows will be approving of his "values."

[liz]

Snopes has a page on this.

In each instance, these men are acting as private citizens who choose to bestow parts of their fortunes on the causes they believe in, not as officers of their corporations. The money is theirs to do with as they please, just as anyone's paycheck belongs to the person who earns it and stops being the employer's money at the moment it is paid out. That a spendthrift employee might choose to gamble away his earnings doesn't mean the company he works for supports gambling; likewise, that a wealthy man financially supports particular causes doesn't mean the corporation that paid him the money favors those movements.

All this is by way of saying that while it's correct to identify Gary Heavin as a patron of pro-life endeavors, it would not be right to point to Curves as a supporter of those same causes.

[Melissa]

I'm having my own moral dilemma about continuing at Curves, but I finally decided to increase what I donate to pro-choice organizations to match the Curves fee, because there's no other women-only non-thong-garden gym that's remotely convenient for me.

[liz]

Jon Carroll's article:

-- Just so you know: Gary Heavin, the founder of the Waco, Texas-based chain of exercise studios called Curves, is a heavy contributor to several organizations allied with Operation Save America, the rather more muscular successor to Operation Rescue, the anti-choice group.

The organizations he funds are spreading the lie that abortions lead to an increased risk of breast cancer. Planned Parenthood says its operations in Texas are being threatened by Heavin-funded clinics based on the old therapeutic model "you must carry your child to term."

In an article in Christianity Today, Heavin expressed pride in his involvement with anti-choice groups, to which he donates 10 percent of Curves' profits. You may do with this information what you will.

Mercury News Article:

Posted on Fri, Apr. 16, 2004 Curves CEO fuses theology and fitness in franchises

GARY HEAVIN CREATES SANCTUARIES FOR WOMEN

By Vera H-C Chan

Special to the Mercury News

Curves, the workout chain, will be flattening out.

Not sales, at $750 million in annual revenues. Not members, at 2 million and growing. Not in world ambition, with roll-outs in 20 countries, including Spain, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Dubai, Hong Kong and India.

The flattening out will be the number of franchises in America. By 2005 -- 10 years after its first franchise in Paris, Texas -- Curves for Women will max out at 8,000 outlets, outstripping Starbucks and gaining on McDonalds.

CEO Gary Heavin (pronounced ``haven'') has been a believer in its success since the beginning. ``When we founded 50, then 250 (in less than a year), the handwriting was on the wall,'' says the Texan, who co-founded the first Curves in 1992 with his wife, Diana. The numbers may not have surprised the fitness and nutrition mogul, but the passion that engendered them has.

``If I missed anything in predicting this whole thing,'' he says, ``it was this inability to perceive this culture, this community of women who would create a sanctuary for other women to work hard and work toward good health.''

Heavin, a born-again Christian who found his faith after filing bankruptcy and losing custody of his two children, oversees an exercise empire. Clubs have relied on word of mouth -- not simply ads -- to bring members in. Customers have become franchise owners, and meet at the annual Curves convention. Many of the franchise owners, the Web site (www.curvesinternational.com) notes, are religious.

``It's all faiths,'' Heavin says. ``We have Hasidic Jewish franchises in Brooklyn, which are closed on Saturday and open on Sunday. We have Muslim franchises. Many of our franchises are Christian, of course, because 90 percent of Americans are Christian.''

Some customers might not be comfortable with the fusion of theology and fitness. ``We get a lot of heat because we're so expressive of our faith, and we encourage our faith,'' Heavin says. Such expressions include Christian music that his wife produces, and articulated Judeo-Christian values in Heavin's newest book, ``Curves: Permanent Results Without Permanent Dieting'' ($23.95, Penguin/Putnam Publishing).

``Facilities are welcome to play or not play the music,'' he says. ``They're welcome to use my book or not.''

Heavin's philanthropy reflects his deep beliefs. For example, he gives to pregnancy centers supported by Operation Save America, the anti-abortion group whose purpose, according to its Web site, ``unashamedly takes up the cause of preborn children in the name of Jesus Christ.''

``It seems everything is tolerated except the Christian, and that's a tragedy because of the need to put values in our boardrooms and classrooms,'' he says. ``Curves is not going to be another Enron or WorldCom.''

His mission to help older women who rarely exercise stems from a personal tragedy. His mother suffered from depression and high-blood pressure. Not long after her divorce, she died at age 40, leaving behind 13-year-old Gary and four other offspring. When Heavin turned 40, he found himself looking for his parent among the women he taught in his center.

``I had my epiphany when I realized what had been driving me all my life,'' he says. ``The Curves model is really to give women who were neglected, certainly by the fitness industry, these women who were giving everything and not taking time for themselves, it was giving them an opportunity.''

Heavin himself is in a good place. He reconciled with his father, who died last year. He regained custody of his two children some time ago, and now has two more. This December, he will pilot himself around the world to visit every country where there is a Curves.

``I'm successful,'' the entrepreneur says, ``because of the wisdom I've gotten from my faith.''

[Susan R]

The price of medication is one of the things contributing to the health care crisis in this country.