Members of the Fitness Party Working Party have worked for almost six years to get to this point and were thrilled to be able to finally publicly declare the path open.

Julie Middleton thanked Owen MacLaughlan and Matt Harrison, our Canowindra Citizens of the Year for attending and performing the "cutting of the ribbon".

She also made special mention of Sally Bourne who was unable to attend, "Sally has been a great advocate for the Fitness Path and has contributed enormously with the design of the path, exercise sites and landscaping, we have been lucky to have someone local with these skill to help us" she said.

The idea for the Fitness Path was born out of a partnership between Canowindra Community Health Centre and Lodge Canowindra which initially led to the Canowindra Fitness and Nutrition Challenge being run in 2009 and 2010.

Following on from this, the idea for a permanent outdoor gym and path around the oval was born. It took over 18 months to get to a stage where the working party had Council approval and could commence applying for grants and fundraising.

Julie commented that "Canowindra really rose to the occasion with half the funding required coming from our community".

Donations came from 20 different local businesses and sporting groups and there were personal donations too many to mention. Money was also raised by the working party through many different activities from raffles to delivering phone books to the sale of t shirts and pavers.

"We were also successful in securing 8 different grants, including a sizable one from Cabonne Council, who have been supportive of the project since its inception," Julie said.

Not to mention the thousands and thousands of volunteer hours from members of the working party and other community members over the years. "As the sign says "Canowindra Fitness Path, built for the community by the community" couldn't be truer!" Julie said

Those attending finished the celebrations with a walk around the path and a healthy fruit and water.