Robin Maginn, of Bristol, stands along the basketball courts in the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta, where she’s been a fitness instructor and personal trainer for over 20 years. Maginn, who at one point was the fitness director of the Y, enjoys movement almost as much as she does music and the outdoors. (Johnathan Riley photo)
At the turn of the new year, folks around the country flock to their local gym to fulfill fitness resolutions. Anyone who has signed up in the last 20 years at the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta may have run into the longtime fitness instructor, outdoor enthusiast, and singer Robin Maginn during their fitness journey.
Maginn has always loved movement, but said the love may have first developed outside when she, along with her folks and three sisters, moved to Billerica, Mass.
“We were out riding our bikes everywhere, catching frogs, and ice skating,” Maginn said. “It was very outdoorsy.”
That love for the outdoors continued in Maginn’s adult life. She moved to Maine in 1999 with her then-husband and their four sons after she felt a calling and connection to the Pine Tree State.
She had spent time in Tenants Harbor during the summers, but it was when she was dog sitting for a friend, a Baxter State Park ranger who lived in Hope, that she felt the urge to move to the state.
“I called my husband at the time and said ‘We’re moving here,’” Maginn said. “Something about being in Maine just spoke to my soul,” Maginn said. “It was like ‘I belong here.’”
They found a Realtor shortly after who helped them find a place closer to the coast than Hope.
The Realtor, according to Maginn, said something to her that foreshadowed her time in Lincoln County.
“One of the things the Realtor said to us was that we were going to love Great Salt Bay (Community School) and the Y,” Maginn said. “And we did end up loving both.”
Maginn’s family moved to Newcastle on Bunker Hill Road in a home that had access to the wilderness in ways that were similar to her own childhood home in Billerica. Shortly after arriving, she was hired at the CLC Y in 2001. The job drew on her experience as a group exercise instructor, something she pursued because it allowed her to be available for her four sons.
“Before I was in the industry, I was very much into fitness and working out and everything,” Maginn said.
The first class Maginn taught at the CLC YMCA was called osteoporosis, a class geared toward older folks to help with bone density.
This work with aging populations is something Maginn has focused on in her work, in 2007 she went to part time at the Y and joined Spectrum Generations, a resource center for adults in Maine who are aging or have disabilities, full time.
“I’m an older adult and feel comfortable training older adults,” Maginn said.
These days, Maginn is part time at the Y as a fitness instructor and healthy living specialist, but outside of personal training, she teaches two classes, three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
According to Maginn, the classes’ members feel close and she considers herself lucky to be a part of it.
“We’re just a big happy family,” Maginn said. “The Y does a potluck lunch on the first Wednesday of the month, and many people from the classes come to that.”
Another source of joy for Maginn is music, which she says plays a big role in her fitness classes. Attendees connect through from the playlists she puts together.
“I put together most of my own music and people have actually asked for copies of the playlists,” Maginn said. “I just play a lot of the classic stuff.
Maginn said she draws from some of her favorites from the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, and while she gets to move to the music with her classes, she also likes to sing.
As a kid, when she wasn’t outside, Maginn said she wanted to be the next Barbra Streisand, and while that hasn’t come to fruition, she’s still been able to continue singing.
Maginn sang in local community choir Common Threads, put together by Ann-Marie D’Amico, GSB’s choral teacher, for a number of years and even sang in a barbershop choir based in Gardiner called Maine-ly Harmony.
“I want to get back to it now,” Maginn said. “Now that the kids are grown and out of the house.”
Maginn said her pride and joy has been her four sons and seeing what wonderful men they’ve turned into.
“I really am so proud of them,” Maginn said.
Her eldest son, Benjamin Millett, and her triplet sons Sam Millett, Jake Millett, Rob Millett, all live in the state.
When she isn’t leading a class at the Y, she’s spending time at home with her partner, Shawn Fitzgerald, in Bristol, or at the family’s camp on Damariscotta Lake enjoying the outdoors.
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