Dani was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School. She went to Edinboro University in Pennsylvania where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Finance. Dani came to Athens in 1996 to attend the University of Georgia, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Health Promotion. After a stint as a Health Education teacher in Oconee County, Dani began working in cardiac rehabilitation as a part-time gig. While doing that and doing some part-time accounting, she began taking on personal fitness clients. Today she is a personal trainer and the owner of The Total Training Center in Athens on Chase Street. She is mother to a 15-year-old boy named Taylor and a parent volunteer for his many sports activities. Dani loves to coach and specializes in training injured athletes/clients.
Dani is the founder and CEO of the Give Thanks Foundation which hosts the second largest running event in Athens, GA. This is an 8k held on Thanksgiving Day each year that starts and ends at Hendershot’s. The event raises money for a different cause every year. Each year a different nonprofit is chosen as its benefactor. Several years together helped raise $25,000 for the construction of the pump track at Walker Park. In the past, Give Thanks has raised funds for Athens Community Council on Aging, the Lyndon House, Love.Craft Athens, and various animal rescue organizations. 2024 will mark the 10th year of the race and the organization expects to have given away $100,000 to different Clarke County nonprofits. Dani lives in Jackson County with her husband, Scott and son, Taylor.
What do you love most about the work you do?
By far, the people. I love helping people but I also love the relationships and community that I’ve built at my gym. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to help people through chemo and radiation, a liver transplant, stroke recovery, knee replacements, shoulder surgeries, baby deliveries, and so much more. I get to help them in different paths in their lives that I feel, hopefully, that I’ve played a pretty good role in. My job is a blessing and it is a rare day when I don’t want to go to work. In my previous life, I was an accountant so I sat at a desk all day and did numbers. Now I get to be around people all day. I very rarely sit down during the day and I love that. I’m a person that likes to move and be around other people, so my job gives me just as much as I give it.
When you’re not working, what are your favorite things to do in and around Athens?
I love to run with my dog on the trails. It’s probably my favorite thing. I run with lots of different friends who run with their dogs too, so it’s a lot of fun. It’s like doggy day care on the trails, but then you get to catch up with your friends so that’s lovely. I still mountain bike a good bit on the trails as well. I would say I’m a pretty active person even when I’m not at work. I love to go to the restaurants in town, too. I have several friends who own restaurants so I get to go see their world and be a part of it. We’ve got some amazing local restaurants in Athens.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I would go to Australia and New Zealand. I was supposed to go the year Covid hit so hopefully that dream will happen again. I would like to go for my 60th birthday which is just a hop and skip away. A very wise man who is 85 told me once that, if i ever had the opportunity to go to Australia and New Zealand, I should go while I’m still physically capable of enjoying those countries. It’s hard to take a lot of time away from work, but that trip needs to happen.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t ever think that another person can give you happiness. Only you can give yourself happiness. It takes a long time to figure that out as a younger female always looking for another to complete you in some way. Complete yourself first, then find a partner who makes you smile.
Do you have a favorite book?
It’s called The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi. It’s a trilogy and the whole trilogy is about this one woman who has a very rough upbringing. What she becomes and what she does for others, is a wonderful thing. I aspire to be a little bit like her.
Do you have a favorite movie? Or, do you remember the first movie you saw in a theater?
So my favorite movie is Out of Africa, with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. And I think that I had the biggest crush of my life on Robert Redford in my younger years…probably still do. I think that that movie is a learning experience about loving somebody but letting them be who they are. Not trying to change who they are.
If you could see any band or musician, anywhere, who would it be and where?
I would bring Prince back to the Tabernacle in Atlanta because bar none, that was the best show I’ve ever seen. It was amazing. I’ll never forget that night. I got to shake his hand and go to an after party with him that night, just WOW!
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?
Accept what is, and be who you are, don’t overthink it.
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
My Grandma, as I didn’t get to ask her so many questions that were left unanswered. I would probably pick her dining room table as she could roll pasta for hours.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word “home”?
Family, comfort zone, and laughter.
