About us | Friendly Fit

Meet The Portledge

Royal Panthers 22112

We are a Middle School robotics team from Portledge School and our names are Avery, Bryce, Blake, Costa, Joshua, Niko and Skylar.

Last year, we were a rookie team and we couldn't believe it when we won a Champion's Award! This year, we are excited to be GAME CHANGERS!

We have new team members and we are a fully-remote team. That has come with its challenges, but we make the most of it and always make sure to have fun and lots of laughs on our Zoom calls!

One of the biggest problems we have all faced as students during quarantine and with our virtual classes is the fact that we spend a lot of time in front of our screens and not enough time being active. And our teachers are having a hard time keeping all of their students motivated and encouraging them to stay fit. With our Innovation Project, we hope to solve this problem!

INTRODUCING OUR WEBSITE .... FRIENDLY-FIT! Friendly-Fit is the perfect solution for motivating students to stay active and fit TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY!

What Problem Have We Identified?

The Innovation Project this year is all about motivating ourselves and each-other to be more active, especially during trying times like the ones we experienced world-wide recently because of COVID19.

When we were brainstorming for our Innovation Project, we interviewed teachers, gym teachers, trainers, athletes and parents asked them what they consider to be their biggest challenge when it comes to motivating others to stay active and fit.

Everyone we interviewed said their biggest problem is that not meeting in person makes it hard to create a sense of community and with increasingly busy work schedules. Especially during COVID 19, the gym teachers and trainers told us that they have struggled to keep their students motivated and interested - particularly when everything has to happen online. They also said that now, some students are spending seven hours a day online for school and then they just fo online to play with friends instead of doing something active.

So we came up with a solution to this problem - Friendly Fit! We designed and built Friendly-Fit to be a free, web based community fitness website. Teachers, trainers and athletes can sign up for Friendly-Fit, create fitness groups with friends, join fitness groups, participate in group challenges and earn rewards!

Why is Friendly-Fit a Solution?

People around the world are constantly working and often they are stuck at their desks or in their offices in front of their computers for long period of time. Especially during COVID19, people are moving less, getting out less and staring at their screens for hours on end. Students especially are getting "Zoomed Out" - they can spent seven hours a day on a computer and then, to play with their friends, they just get on another screen. Even worse, some students just spend hours alone on social media.

We believe Friendly-Fit will motivate people of all ages to be more active and stay connected in a way that is healthy and safe!

Teachers can create community workout groups for their students and encourage their students to exercise and earn exercise participation rewards.

Trainers can create groups for their teams or trainees and encourage them to share their routines, talk about their days and get healthier together.

And families can exercise together too! They can create friends and family groups and have fun challenging each other to stay active and fit!

Did We Get Any Expert Advice?

We spoke and met with many experts and advisors about our solution. We shared Friendly-Fit with teachers, trainers and family that might be able to benefit from our efforts:

EVELYN TAVAREZ - Web developer at Opentext
DAVE BUTLER - video game, app & website designer
JOE DEAL - website designer
PORTLEDGE SCHOOL (Locust Valley, NY) - faculty & board members, including Ms. Favretto and Mr. Kapps (physical education teachers), as well as Coaches Sullivan and Woll.
STEWART SCHOOL (Garden City, NY) - Linda Norton (principal) and Ms. Burke (physical education teacher)
iDTECH SUMMER CAMPS - development team
COREY JANTZEN - personal trainer & world-class athlete
CHRIS AMMIRATI - fitness coach a John Ondrush Golf & Fitness Academy
FITNESS FROM A-Z - instructor Ada Coonerty
SOCCER MOTIV8 - founder Michael Connolly

How Is Our Solution Different?

There are a lot of exercise websites and applications - we know that. But all of those website and applications are built so that you join them as an individual and, if you are able to join groups, they are public groups that are available to everyone worldwide.

There are also a lot of exercise related Facebook groups, but not everyone can join Facebook (especially young students), some people don't want to be on social media to connect with friends and social media channels raise serious security and privacy concerns, especially for students.

Friendly-Fit is different because anyone can join for free - all you need is an email to create your login. Teachers can create their own safe groups for their students. Trainers can create their own groups for their teams or trainees. And families and friends can join in the fun too. All of this can be done safely and privately.

And as an added bonus, our member groups have the exact same functionality as a Facebook group. Share your videos, post comments and cheer each other on! Create your own tribe and be #GAMECHANGERS!

How Did We Make Our Idea A Reality?

We spent a lot of time trying to decide how to make our idea a reality. At first, we wanted to create an application (not a website). We tried to code our own application using Java in VAC App Builder, but we found that this application didn't give us all the functionality we wanted plus we wouldn't be able to create our community groups.

We spoke with Dave Butler, an expert in app, video game and website design, and Dave suggested that we look into creating a website instead of an app. We liked that this would give us increased functionality and a flexible layout that would make it easy to use not just on a computer but also on a mobile device. We decided to use the WIX platform to create our website because it has a very user-friendly mobile device platform and it lets us design the website version and the mobile version separately.

When COVID first started, because we weren't able to meet together, we decided to learn how to make websites. We all learned how to use WIX and made our own websites. Then, when this season started, we also taught our new team members to use WIX too.

Finally, we also spoke with web developers such as Evelyn Tavarez who works for OpenText and our coach Maria Zografos who has her own e-commerce business for advice on how to design our website.

We are so proud of what we have accomplished and we hope you enjoy visiting our website!