GREENWOOD, Miss.—-The stadium’s harsh lights illuminated the student athletes from rival teams Greenwood High School and Amanda Elzy High School as they marched onto the field in fall 2023 for some Friday-night football.
Meanwhile, across town, Laquanda Fryson-Blake’s heart raced inside of the Greenwood Community and Recreation Center. Beads of sweat cascaded from her face, plummeting to the turquoise step aerobics box on the floor. Her breaths matched the quickness of her feet tapping the box to the beats of Megan Thee Stallion, Gucci Mane, and Crime Mob.
“I walk in the club, shakin’ my dreads,” Crime Mob declares through stereo speakers.
The only other person inside the room besides Fryson-Blake, instructor Christine Campbell, stood beside the Leflore County resident, leading the class of two through an hour-long cardio experience.
“Single. Single. Curve. Curve. Two-step knee,” Campbell directed, shouting the exercise directions through compressed heavy breathing.
That class only consisted of Fryson-Blake and Campbell.
Two years later, Fryson-Blake and Campbell would find themselves exercising together again with a large group of dedicated group members that would become family.
From Couch to Cardio
Christine Campbell, a Mississippi Delta native, started D.R.O.P. Fitness during the summer of 2023. After sitting on the couch watching exercise classes on social media, Campbell told her husband, “I think I can do that.”
Spending the rest of the night brainstorming ideas about her new business venture, Campbell’s husband coined the name D.R.O.P., which stands for Dedication Represents Opportunity for Progress, the next day.
Creating her pilot class, D.R.O.P. Step Box Aerobics, Campbell instructed her first cardio class in June of 2023 to staff members at God’s Helping Hands Learning Academy. Initially offering private classes, the cardio experience soon became popular in her community.
Four months later, the exercise guru held weekly classes in the Greenwood Community and Recreation Center, where she met Fryson-Blake.
“I had never been to a class that engaged step-box aerobics in person with an instructor. That’s what made the class appealing to me,” Fryson-Blake told the Mississippi Free Press. “I was sore after our first class together, but I was ready for the next one.”
In November 2023, Campbell’s aerobics class found a new location at Studio A in downtown Greenwood. Offering weekly classes for almost a year, Campbell took a leap of faith and opened her own studio on one of Greenwood’s most popular strips, Park Ave, in 2024.
A Growing Community
Christine Campbell has continued to grow her business with innovative workout classes that challenge participants. Expanding from her initial step-box aerobics class, the entrepreneur now has 14 different workout classes that she and four other instructors teach each week.
Fryson-Blake has been to several of the classes that Campbell offers.
“I’m very proud to see where she started from and how she has expanded to such a variety of classes now,” she said of Campbell. “You can never get bored. That’s what keeps you coming back.”
With such a variety of classes, Campbell’s class has created a diverse space where people of different backgrounds can come together to move their bodies.
“It’s like a community. There are women of all ages, sizes and ethnicities. If you see one down, the next person lifts you up. We have turned into a family,” Fryson-Blake explained.
Xiomara Moreno, one of D.R.O.P.’s most active members, learned about the class from a friend through social media. Born in Mexico, Moreno has lived in Greenwood for 22 years. She said she appreciates the diversity within Campbell’s classes, providing a safe space for participants to share their cultures as they exercise. Moreno credits D.R.O.P. for helping her attain her fitness goals.
“I like it because it has made me more consistent, it made me more confident, and I have met some amazing people who motivated me to keep going,” Moreno told the Mississippi Free Press.
‘I Always Wanted My Own’
Entrepreneurship has been a challenging, yet rewarding venture for Campbell. Even in the beginning stages of her classes, she knew that she sought a space and brand that belonged to her.
“I always knew that I wanted my own even when I was at the community center, but I understood that I had to go through the process,” Campbell explained.
Enough people in Greenwood have noticed and come to admire Campbell’s patience and diligence that D.R.O.P. received a nomination for Best Gym in the Greenwood Commonwealth’s 2025 People’s Choice Awards.
A woman of faith and family, Campbell’s success comes alongside being an active and loving wife and mother to her husband and two sons, she said. She is also an assistant professor of health and physical education at Mississippi Valley State University.
Celebrating her one-year anniversary in the current D.R.O.P. studio, the fitness instructor is expanding her class into a new, bigger building on 200 Howard St., Greenwood in January 2026. She dreams of having her own recreation center with a studio, cardio machines, weights and basketball courts.
For more information on D.R.O.P. Fitness (522 W. Park Ave, Greenwood), call 601-645-2150 or visit dropfitnes.com. Know a Mississippian you believe deserves some public recognition? Nominate them for a potential Person of the Day article at mfp.ms/pod.
