PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
Family: Husband, Kent Leonard;
daughter, Lauren Hellstrom;
stepsons Mark and Michael
Hellstrom
Background: Helped obtain grants to restore the Sunrise Theatre;
organized multiple fundraisers and 5Ks; runs marathons
and performs in community theater.
Something most people don’t know about me: “I was at the
original Woodstock — probably the straightest person there!”
SALLY YATES RICHESON
intricate steps, the program exploded in popularity in the
1980s, right about the time she was thinking about a career
change.
The program intrigued her and after passing an audition
in West Palm Beach, she began teaching. Then a shock of
another sort occurred: divorce. Eventually, she married Dick
Hellstrom, an engineer from her former job. One bend in the
road made way for the next, and soon, baby made three: a
daughter named Lauren.
While Lauren was young, Hellstrom-Leonard limited
herself primarily to Jazzercise, but as Lauren grew, she got
involved with community theaters all along the Treasure
Coast. Today, her love of the stage shines through every arm
movement and shoulder roll.
The Hellstroms eventually built a home in Port St. Lucie’s
Spyglass PGA Village, complete with a home theater — it
even has its own Facebook page. A place of joyful, shared
memories, the theater became a comforting sanctuary in 2011,
when Dick passed away after a three-year battle with ALS
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s
disease.
Instructors pitched in from a Melbourne franchise, but
after a month, Hellstrom-Leonard was back at work, crediting
Port St. Lucie Magazine 51
ALEXANDRA ‘SANDI’
HELLSTROM-LEONARD
Age: 65
Lives in: Port St. Lucie
Occupation: Jazzercise franchisee/
instructor for 34 years
Kent and Sandi attend a wedding in 2015.
FORT
PIERCE
her students as an important part of her healing. “Nine of
80 registered runners for the Sunrise Theatre Dick Hellstrom
Memorial 5K Run/Walk last year were my students,” she
says. “The day of the race, it poured down rain. Half of the
runners stayed home. All nine of my students showed up.”
Hellstrom-Leonard says the long-standing class has been
VERO BEACH THEATRE GUILD
Sandi Hellstrom-Leonard has performed in dozens of shows all over the
Treasure Coast; her favorite role was the Queen in Cinderella.
supportive of each other, too.
“Births, deaths, illnesses, good news, bad news, happy
times and lots of sweat and smiles … sounds corny but it’s
the truth,” she says.
The class has become, in many ways, a family.
“If it wasn’t for Sandi, I’d probably be in a wheelchair,” student
Gail Hatfield says. A petite blonde, Hatfield was falling
apart 13 years ago. Diabetic and also coping with rheumatoid
arthritis, she’d suffered a torn rotator cuff the previous year
and had done virtually nothing since then — except eat.
“Everything hurt from the lack of mobility,” Hatfield says.
“I was fat, emotionally drained, and depressed! One day I
just made up my mind to do something about it.”
She went to a Jazzercise class. “That first day, I stood in the
back and started very slow, but Sandi was so great, I kept
going back.” Now 72 and 60 pounds lighter, she feels better
than ever.
Funka has been a Jazzercise fan for even longer. It was, in
fact, the deciding factor for moving to Fort Pierce in 1990.
Having begun classes in Ohio, she and her husband wanted
to relocate their company somewhere in Florida., but where?
“Our motel had a newspaper with an ad for Sandi’s class. I
went, and that was it. I told my husband we had to move to
Fort Pierce!”
A former ballroom dancer, Funka says Jazzercise is addictive
because the music used is “what you’re used to hearing
on the radio,” but that Hellstrom-Leonard makes it even better.
“We tell her she has to keep teaching, even when she’s in
her 80s.” >>