A group of Latina mothers from the John Burroughs Elementary School community has taken two crucial health issues into their own hands.

In a community that has no safe place to play besides the school facilities, the women recently signed a joint-use agreement with Fresno Unified School District, which allows the elementary school’s gates – and its parks and playground - to be open throughout the summer.

And in a region where 64 percent of Latino adults are overweight or obese, the women have dedicated themselves to a boot-camp exercise group. This summer, they have been meeting in the school park six days a week to take walks and work out.

I caught up with the group around 10:30 a.m. last Saturday morning. They were just completing their morning boot-camp session, and were stretching out their well-worked limbs under the shade of some trees. Their young children played nearby.

Afterward, many of the women told me they have already seen great results from the work-out regimen.

“Now I’m skinnier,” Esther Carmona, a mother of four, said proudly in Spanish. She grinned, and smoothed her hands down her flattened stomach and hips.

“I have more energy to come and do exercises, and I’m enjoying it,” Carmona said. Working out with the group of women, she said, “relieves your stress, makes you relax, and makes you forget about the problems you have in your house.”

Guillermina Chavanil, another mother of four, said she feels healthier, and lighter, now that she is exercising regularly.

“I started working out to feel better, and I do feel better,” Chaval said.

It was inspiring to hear the group of women talk about their dedication to their exercise regimen. And in a time when childhood obesity has become an important issue, it was neat to hear that the women’s children are as dedicated to the weekly routine as their mothers.

Are you interested in joining a boot-camp? The John Burroughs mothers work out with Jennifer Alcorn’s TeamJab fitness boot camp. TeamJab offers other boot camps around the Fresno area.