(This article was written by Abigail Muniz-Garcia and was featured in the January 2025 issue of Explore Harlingen Magazine.)
Everyone can appreciate a good comeback story. Who remembers Michael Jordan hanging up his sneakers for baseball cleats for a few seasons but then ultimately coming back to basketball and leading the Chicago Bulls to more NBA titles in the 1990s?
While comeback stories abound in sports, Hollywood, and individual stories of people who have overcome a disease or a health issue, businesses that close their doors aren’t as likely to reopen and make a comeback. In the United States, 595,000 businesses fail or close every year.
So when Veronica Garza got a call in late November that the health and fitness facility she had seen grow since its inception was going to reopen its doors in 2025, she was in shock. Valley Baptist Health and Fitness Center (its former name) closed its doors when everything shut-down on March 17, 2020, due to COVID-19.
“It was a home to many of us. We were devastated. We shut down with no hopes of it ever opening again,” she said. “When I got the call (of it closing), I was in shock. It was like my baby; (I felt like) I literally raised it.”
Garza remembers the facility’s beginnings when it was at its original location behind the emergency room at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
“We went through so many growing pains together, lots of changes,” she said. “I was the only one that made it through the changes…that center meant so much to me. I saw it grow.”
Now, nearly five years later she received the call with news that the facility at 3001 N. Augusta National Drive would reopen under a new name – Treasure Hills Fitness Center.
Garza thought they (the private owners of the facility) were calling her with questions regarding the center or the equipment.
“I had no idea what was going on and they just told me they had bought the center, and they wanted me to help,” she said. “I jumped at the opportunity, obviously.”
Garza, who has been in the fitness industry for 25 years, started as an instructor at the original facility and moved on to become the director/general manager, which is the position she held when the facility closed in 2020.
“It’s gonna be such a blessing to the community,” she said.
She says that while she realizes there are other facilities in the city, their goal is to bring what they had before closing and making it even better.
With an indoor heated pool and an indoor basketball court that set it apart from other fitness centers in the area, to Les Mills group classes, yoga, Pilates, Zumba, TRX training, and much more, the facility promises to come back stronger than before.
“I still can’t believe it’s coming back to life and how can I not help to bring it back to life?” Garza said. She will be general manager of the facility and oversee all operations.
At press time, no established opening date was available although Garza mentioned it was set for mid- to late-January. Follow Treasure Hills Fitness Center on Facebook for updates.
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