It looks like my email was blocked so I am sending it again to this address. Sorry if you have received this twice. -Sophia
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From: Sophia Simon >
Date: Sat, Apr 24, 2021 at 11:07 AM
Subject: The Gift of Menlo Park Gymnastics
To: >, >, >, >, >, >
I’m heading off to college in the fall, but I want to take a moment to thank Menlo Park for the Menlo Park Gymnastics program and the Arrillaga family for giving us the gift of Burgess Gym. I spent 12 years in the program, first learning somersaults and handstands and slowly moving up, year-by-year, to five State championships, 3 Regional competitions, eventually becoming a Region 1 Bars and All-Around champion. As a junior in high school, I switched to springboard diving as my primary sport, but the community forged in the gymnastics program drew me back into coaching the younger girls a couple of days a week until COVID-19 closed everything down.
I love competing, I love the gift of the Burgess Gym, but even more I love the sense of community that the gym gave me. Not only was I able to find friends and balance my studies by working out nearly every day, I grew up in that beautiful and safe space. People used to tell me that the gymnastics program was a big moneymaker for the city. I know that classes filled not only with local residents but with young athletes from nearby towns that did not have a gymnastics program like ours. But I’m not sure that our City leaders have heard much from young people like me and the families we represent or given much thought to how important programs like this are to building a strong community. Menlo Park Gymnastics represents more than the usual recreation program. It has been an example of the heart and soul of what I want a community to be and I will carry that experience with me into the future.
For many years, I’ve heard rumors about the City shutting down the gymnastics program or outsourcing it. I would ask everyone in Menlo Park to deeply consider the kind of community we want to be and how friendly, unique, and rigorous programs like this make our families healthier and happier. I’ll be on the East Coast in the fall, but I hope you will work together to get Menlo Park children back in the gym as soon as possible. It will help them recover from this long pandemic. And I hope that when I return, I will find many young gymnasts learning and growing in our beautiful community gym with our dedicated community teachers. Menlo Park families and City leaders, I know that budgets are tight now, but please protect and nurture this and similar programs for the kids coming after me.
Sophia Simon
College Ave, Menlo Park
