“Education is motivation.”

That’s Dr. Chris Carr’s philosophy.

With family, friends and members of the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce on hand, Carr and his wife Jackie celebrated the grand opening of their Silverdale gym Thursday.

The Carrs opened Anytime Fitness on Plaza Road earlier this month and Chris said owning a gym has been a long time coming.

Chris spent five years in the Navy, including a seventh-month tour in Iraq as a general surgeon. While he was in Iraq last year, Jackie e-mailed him and said they should open a gym called “Motivate Me.”

Almost exactly one year later, the Carrs opened Anytime Fitness.

The couple never owned a business before and decided they needed a little help. They did some research and found the Anytime Fitness franchise.

“We were very interested in the Anytime concept,” Chris said.

Chris says “education is motivation,” which plays a role in Anytime Fitness of Silverdale’s mission. Chris and Jackie strive to educate gym patrons on health fitness because “health fitness is a state of mind before it becomes a state of body,” according to their mission statement.

“Our goal is definitely a holistic approach to this,” Chris said.

Anytime Fitness is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Gym patrons are given an access key to enter the club when it is not staffed. Chris said there are cameras inside and outside the facility, so patrons can rest assured they are safe while working out in the gym after hours.

Anytime Fitness has state-of-the-art Nautilus equipment for gym patrons to use. Chris said he and Jackie chose Nautilus because the equipment is “ergonomically designed for your body.”

“It moves with your body,” he said. “All the equipment is made in a way for injury prevention.”

Anytime Fitness is home to the Nautilus Freedom Trainer, which can accommodate at least 26 different workouts.

“With that thing and a little imagination, you can do just about anything,” Chris said.

Anytime Fitness also has a spin center where a DVD player will be set up and people can partake in spinning sessions.

Chris publishes health and fitness newsletters on a regular basis and will offer health seminars on a variety of topics in Anytime Fitness’ all-purpose room.

Chris and Jackie also are heavily involved in the community. The Anytime Fitness staff participated in this year’s Relay for Life and plan to work with Children of the Nations.

Anytime Fitness is currently donating a portion of the proceeds from each new membership throughout October to help support Mindy, a Silverdale Safeway employee who recently had surgery to remove a tumor on her brain stem. The money goes toward offsetting the cost of surgery and her time away from work.

“ … we believe this is a community of support and together we can make a difference in taking care of ourselves and the lives of others,” Jackie said.

Anytime Fitness of Silverdale offers a 10 percent off Hero Membership for all active duty military members, teachers (K-12), police officers and firefighters.

The first 100 Anytime Fitness members will receive an Anytime Gift Pack, which includes a backpack, water bottle, Anytime Fitness T-shirt and towel.