Young entrepreneur works to foster fitness: Turtles Fitness collaborates with Petey Wheatys

Two local small businesses came together at just the right time this Spring to collaborate on a combination that people tend to love– working out and comfort food.  Petey Wheaty’s, a catering shop in New City, has teamed up with Turtles Fitness in Sloatsburg in hopes to uplift the Rockland community with what they love. 

It all started 2018 when the President of Turtles Fitness, Eric Bonkoski created his first logo, modeled after his pet turtle Frank. The logo became popular and soon enough, Bonkoski and his friends adopted Frank as their friend group’s “unofficial mascot”.

Bonkoski soon started handing out pins and stickers of Frank around Suffern High School, where he graduated from in 2019. After witnessing the success of that intial merchandise, his friend brought up the idea to start making shirts as well.

Before the collaboration began, Bonkoski already was experimenting with shirts that had an ice cream logo on it until another idea came in mind – to reach out and support another local business based in the Rockland area.  “When there’s times of struggle, you have to come together, you have to help other businesses.” Bonkoski told the Rockland County Times. 

That’s when Bonkoski and the rest of his team reached out to Peter Margolin, the owner of Petey Whetey’s through Instagram. Both businesses were more than happy to come together and represent what they’re all about, making their customrs happy. 

While Turtles Fitness is very much a product of their generation, Bonkoski and his team want to make fitness fun for all ages and want everyone to feel involved, regardless of size, shape, and passions. “I hope to build a community around fitness for everyone,” said Bonkoski. He continued with, “Fitness is meant to be fun!”

Four years later, the Turtles Fitness team now includes Santiago Balbuena Jr – Marketing Director, Hector Gutierrez- Graphic Artist, Kevin Gonzalez- Graphic Artist and Matt Cioffi- Photographer. 

To get to know more about both local businesses, you can visit their social media at: @turtlesfitnesss and @peteywheatys. 

  community, fitness, food, new city, Petey Wheatys, sloatsburg, Turtles Fitness