Ocean City Celebrates Grand Opening of Outdoor Fitness Park

Cayden Scioli, his 4-year-old sister, Lena, and their cousin, Luke Scioli, wasted no time Thursday trying out the exercise equipment at Ocean City’s new outdoor fitness park.

“It’s really cool,” 8-year-old Cayden exclaimed as the other kids nodded their heads in agreement.

That’s exactly the type of reaction that city officials were hoping to get from the public during a ceremonial ribbon-cutting led by Mayor Jay Gillian to celebrate the grand opening of the fitness park.

“It’s a great new amenity for everyone who makes the Boardwalk or Carey Stadium part of their daily fitness routine and for anyone else,” Gillian said in a statement. “We’ve heard very positive feedback so far. The concept originated with our Healthy Living Advisory Council, and I want to thank them for helping to see the project through.”

The fitness park is centrally located between Ocean City High School’s Carey Stadium and the Ocean City Civic Center, next to the Boardwalk parking lot between Fifth and Sixth streets.

Although the fitness equipment is oriented toward adults, children will also be able to play or work out at the park – perhaps while watching their parents get into shape.

Cayden Scioli, who lives in Upper Township and whose father, Devon Scioli, is an Ocean City employee, said he hopes his dad brings him to the fitness park almost every day. He especially likes a workout area that resembles an obstacle course.

“Actually, it’s great,” he said.

The facility is free for the public to use and will be open dawn to dusk each day. It includes 12 single-use pieces of equipment and two large multi-use pieces. Each piece is designed specifically to withstand harsh weather and heavy usage with safety in mind, the city said.

Users can download the Kompan Outdoor Fitness app for free workouts specific to the equipment. The equipment includes an abdominal bench, shoulder press machine, pull down, leg press, heavy bag, horizontal row, cross-trainer, chest press machine, recumbent bike, arm bike, kettle bells and other pieces.

    The fitness park features an array of exercise equipment in an open setting.
  

City, county, state and Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce officials joined with members of the Ocean City Healthy Living Advisory Council for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“We are so proud of this new facility. It’s an outdoor gym for people. It’s a playground for older adults to get out there and work out,” said Michele Gillian, the Chamber of Commerce’s executive director and the mayor’s wife.

Michele Gillian noted that the fitness park adds to the nine other public playgrounds that Ocean City already has and is another attraction in town for children and adults.

“We’re beach to bay with activities for children and families. What more could we ask for? This is it,” she said. “We have children right now from east to west, north to south, at playground camps, art camps, singing camps, theater camps. They have it all going on – soccer, football, lacrosse. We are the best of the best.”

    Ella Curci, a college lacrosse player, plans to make the fitness park a regular part of her summer workouts.
  

Heather Curci and her daughter, Ella, were among the first people to try out the fitness equipment during the park’s grand opening. They live in Fort Washington, Pa., and have a summer vacation home in Ocean City.

Ella Curci, 21, is a senior at Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland and plays on the college lacrosse team. She plans to make the fitness park a regular part of her summer workouts.

“I love it,” she said of park. “I like the open feel of it. I like to run on the track (at Carey Stadium) and then I can do my workouts afterward. Plus, it’s free. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Heather Curci said she likes the QR codes that provide workout instructions for each piece of equipment.

    Councilman Keith Hartzell, in white shirt, works out while watched by Councilman Jody Levchuk and Cape May County Commissioners Andrew Bulakowski and Bob Barr.
  

On the heels of the fitness park’s grand opening, Councilman Keith Hartzell is hoping to open another public attraction, in the same area, in the summer of 2026.

It would feature 20,000 square feet of interactive amusements, zip lines, walk-through tunnels and more.

Hartzell would like to have the project on the beach between Fifth and Sixth streets, an area now used for volleyball courts.

“It’s a big undertaking, because it would be a community project,” he said.

Hartzell also said he is willing to put up $800,000 of his own money to help make the project a reality. He would use a beach playground that he has seen in St. Augustine, Fla., as a model for his proposed Ocean City project.

“I’m going to continue to push for it,” he said in an interview.

    Mayor Jay Gillian uses an oversized pair of scissors to cut the ceremonial ribbon for the fitness park's grand opening. (Photo courtesy of Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce)