A Commitment to Health & Wellness
You don’t have to play Division I sports to be active at Duke. Duke Recreation & Physical Education offers a wide range of programs that encourage healthy lifestyles through education and recreation. Each year, more than 20,000 members of the Duke community—from undergraduate and graduate students to faculty, staff, and alumni—participate in one or more activities offered by Recreation & Physical Education. A division of Duke Athletics, our program provides funding, facilities, and staffing to support 36 Sport Clubs, 10 Intramural Sports, 6 Fitness and Wellness locations, 20 Physical Education classes, personal training, a variety of aquatic programs, and an inclusive Outdoor Adventures program. It is one of the most extensive university-based recreational programs offered anywhere, providing opportunities for students, faculty, and staff who are interested in competitive sports, as well as options for those who simply want to get some exercise, swim, rock climb, kayak, or meet other people with similar interests.
Additional Resources
- Review the 2022 - 2023 Duke Recreation & Physical Education Annual Report
- Read "Why I Gave to Duke" by Peter Ciporin, Class of 2019
- Learn about what our department has been up to in the Duke Rec & P.E. News
Development Initiatives
The demand for new programs, equipment, and facilities drives the need for new sources of funding. An annual gift to Recreation & Physical Education can help ensure our ability to offer diverse and quality recreation programs that promote health and wellness to the entire Duke community, such as some of the initiatives outlined below. Every gift, regardless of size, makes an immediate impact and helps inspire future donors.
The Recreation & Physical Education Department is maximizing facility use across West, East, and Central campuses. The need for additional space and programs continues to grow, particularly as students’ interests change each year. Gifts to Recreation & Physical Education support not only our day-to-day operations but also provide critical funding for facility expansions, fitness and aquatics programs, outdoor adventure trips, and new equipment for intramural and sport club teams.
This endowment supports an expansion of experience-based programming for our students and members. On average, we have nearly 100,000 participations in our programs each year, however we still see waitlists for programs and students missing out on experiences due to budget limitations. Further financial support for our programs could result in additional offerings to accommodate the hundreds of students unable to participate due to limited offerings.
OUTDOOR ADVENTURE EXPERIENCES
Our Outdoor Adventures program offers a wide variety of land and water-based outings including, camping, climbing, surfing, hiking, skiing, and overnight adventures that are open to the Duke community. With over 25 outings per year, our outdoor experiences are very popular, resulting in over 200 students waitlisted and unable to participate each year due to capacity limitations. Further funding would allow us to offer additional outdoor experiences and better supply the demand for these services.
AQUATICS PROGRAMMING
Financial barriers often prevent both adults and children from being able to take swim lessons and learn a life-long skill. Duke Recreation and Physical Education’s Adult and Youth swim lesson help these individuals overcome their fear of water and learn the skills to achieve a degree of water competency. Additional funding would allow us to make our swim lessons more accessible and help remove financial barriers.
FITNESS & WELLNESS
The mission of Duke Recreation and Physical Education is to provide exceptional and diverse opportunities that promote healthy active lifestyles in a safe, inclusive environment. COVID has forced us and our users to re-align their physical fitness and wellness needs. With additional funding we would be able to provide Fitness Pack for use at home, in conjunction with our virtual fitness classes. This would allow our users to maintain their physical wellness while at-home or when distanced from our facilities.
This fund has been created to offset expenditures incurred and funding lost due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic. This will allow us to immediately resume some programming operations, while re-building our traditional program offerings.
VIRTUAL FITNESS EQUIPMENT
A remote portable technology system to enable us to continue offering virtual fitness classes and expanding our services beyond campus. Our virtual fitness offerings have been in high demand and allowed us to keep our community active, while expanding our impact and offerings across the globe. Funding will allow us to continue and expand these offerings beyond 2020.
MOBILE RECREATION OFFERINGS
With capacity limits in our facility due to COVID operating procedures, we are unable to provide our traditional program offerings. A mobile recreation offering would allow us to expand our programming locations and provide on-site recreation programming for students. This could include a mobile bicycle rental operation, on-site group fitness classes and traveling intramural sports.
Support Sport Clubs
Sport Clubs provide the students, faculty, and staff of Duke University the opportunity to participate in organized sport and competitive activities. Opportunities to develop leadership skills exist through Sport Clubs Executive Council, Sport Clubs officer positions, and club member participation. Each Sport Club is composed of individuals who share a common interest in recreation, sport and organize to collectively pursue their goals to either compete locally or at the national level. Sport Clubs are formed, organized, and governed by the members under the guidelines of Athletics and Duke Recreation & Physical Education.
To give to a specific club, click on the corresponding link below or mail check to address below (be sure to include club name in check's note section.
Duke Recreation & Physical Education, ATTN: Business Office
Box 90548, 117 Wilson Center, Durham, NC 27708