5 Ways For Your Gymnastics Center to Give Back to the Community
When you started your gymnastics center, you probably envisioned creating a fun experience for your gymnasts. A place for kids to collaborate both in a competitive team environment and to enhance their strength as individuals.
It is filled with smiling faces, supportive coaches, and knowledgeable staff who have earned the trust of local families. Now that you’ve created a great environment where everyone can go after school or on weekends to train, have fun, and burn off some energy.
Now it’s time to bring that experience and give back outside of the walls of your gym! Here are some unique ways your gymnastics center can give back to your local community.
- Involve your Gymnastics Center When Volunteering
Community service and volunteer efforts are a great way to get involved in your community and help others, and should be a part of your gym’s DNA!Whether volunteering at a local school or hospital, it’s an important way your gymnastics center can give back to the community. When volunteering, it’s best to identify causes that are important to your community and see where you can truly help out.
This may be overwhelming initially, but begin to narrow it down to 2-3 areas in your community that could benefit. This could include volunteering for causes like aiding the homeless, dedicating volunteer hours to charities that benefit childhood health and development, or even helping at your local hospitals.
After you’ve identified areas important to you and narrowed down your search, reach out to those groups to coordinate good times for when you and your gymnastics staff can get involved. Volunteering is a great team bonding activity, especially when it’s a cause everyone can empathize with! Try to have some fun and put out positive energy for a greater impact on your team and community.
- Get Your Gymnastics Center to Fundraise & Donate for the Community
After finding a cause you and your gymnastics center are passionate about, offer to fundraise and donate the proceeds or offer to become a partner with your organization of choice. Keep in mind that during fundraising, you may run into a few legal obstacles, especially when setting up your fundraiser.Keep up to date on what is permissible in your state and city when fundraising for non-profits or local businesses. Talk with your parent boosters about how they can benefit from your giveback and see if they can help spark some interesting fundraising ideas and make any transitions easier for you and your gymnastics staff.
Alternatively, you could also choose to donate memberships to schools for a select few members, pay for advertising in school programs and yearbooks, or even include a donation jar at your gymnastics center for local organizations and businesses that your gymnastics members to contribute to.
- Your Gymnastics Center Should Have A Local Event Presence
When the weather begins to turn to that time of year that more people are outside than inside, take advantage of public spaces to host a gymnastics event that is open to the public. This could bring in more members for you and allows kids and teens to lead a more active lifestyle.You could also take advantage of local health fairs, fitness events, and other seasonal festivals by setting up a booth for information about your gymnastics center. This is a great gymnastics marketing opportunity to distribute swag and new promotional material to retain and attract new members. Discover other areas in your community and see where you can wedge your way into, especially regarding sponsorship.
Many communities tend to have recreational sports leagues, you could offer to sponsor a team in return for wearing your gymnastic center’s logo on uniforms, game fliers, and social media promotions and advertisements. A wider presence within the community will create a greater representation of what your gym stands for and what you do to contribute to the well-being of your community.
- Offer Gymnastic Center Mentorships
Since gymnastics offers opportunities for discipline and building confidence, you can offer a scholarship program open to your community for the possibility to learn the ins and outs of what goes into gymnastics and what it’s like to run a gymnastics center.You could also look into what schools have mentorship programs available for those to learn and shadow how you work within your community and within a gym setting.
By mentoring, you can inspire kids and teens to pursue a career in gymnastics, or inspire them to consider running their own health facility. During mentorships, you may even have the opportunity to enlist new team members for your gymnastics center in the future.
- Your Gymnastics Center Can Benefit Schools
As a gymnastics club owner, you know that schools are one of your greatest resources for your business, and also offer opportunities for you to give back. Many schools tend to have limited budgets, especially within clubs that don’t have sponsors or fundraisers already set in place. See if you can get in touch with physical education teachers and see what resources they would need to start a new club that you could sponsor or even donate gently used or new equipment for new in-school programs or pay for new gear or uniforms for students.Alternatively, you could also get more involved with PTA’s and see what kind of funding they would need for school activities such as dances or upcoming sporting events.
Another option could include getting involved with teaching the importance of physical safety to parents during parent-teacher nights, especially if you know many of your gymnasts reside in the school. Parents will appreciate the outreach if they cannot attend gymnastic class practices and have the opportunity to learn about any upcoming events you may be holding in your gymnastics center.
If you have ever considered giving back to your community, this is the perfect time to start! There are hundreds of ways that your gymnastics center can give back. Focus on 3-4 that easily fit your schedule and start with those. Your community will notice! All it takes is your imagination and a bit of energy to get off the ground.
