Myrtle Beach Recreation Centers start welcoming new members for first time since March

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – The city of Myrtle Beach has entered the next phase in re-opening its recreation centers, which includes accepting new members.

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Crabtree Memorial Gymnasium signed up 19 new members on the first day it could register new people.

Myrtle Beach recreation centers started re-opening in the middle of June in a very limited capacity.

But October brings open court basketball, pickleball and work out classes back into the mix.

“Our team, the people that teach our classes to a lot of our members, so they were missed,” said Myrtle Beach Parks, Recreation and Tourism Special Events Coordinator Mallory Holmes. “Our classes are booming right now.”

Along with the activities, the rec centers have also started accepting new members for the first time since March 16.

Crabtree Memorial Gymnasium felt the wave of new members.

“At this facility, we enrolled 19 new members in one day, so that was really good for us,” said Holmes.

Those new registrations brought $2,000 to the city.

New members had to pay those dues, and starting this month with so many activities resuming, existing members have to start paying dues again as well.

“We’ve not been taking in any money for quite some time, so starting that back up and continuing to get new members and continuing to accept payments from our members was pretty important for us,” said Holmes.

With all the returning activities, the recreation centers are still requiring social distancing, 30-minute limits in the weight and cardio rooms and temperature checks at the door.

The city also started re-opening its pools at Pepper Geddings and Mary C. Canty Recreation Centers, but the pools are only open with a reservation and limited capacity.

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