Recently I did a clinic at Central Vermont Gymnastics Academy. The owner of the gym, Anissa, has faced many difficulties opening up her gym. I want to share her story. Through adversity we find our strength.
For the past 32 years I have been involved in gymnastics as either a competitor or coach. My love for gymnastics all began at age 7 when I started competitive training at the original Green Mountain Gymnastics in Waterbury Center and performed exhibition routines at Harwood Union High School. I moved on to train at Champlain Valley Gymnastics (originally Dunkley’s Gymnastics) in South Burlington in 1984. Subsequently, I competed for Harwood on their junior high and varsity teams.
Wanting to continue my passion for the sport into adulthood, I turned to coaching the Harwood Union Middle School team right out of high school and worked in recreational gymnastics programs. Since 2002, I have taken on the role of head coach of the Harwood Union High School, Harwood Union Middle School and Crossett Brook Middle School teams. I am currently the Director of Gymnastics Programs at Harwood and have been for the last 13 years.
In 2006, I started Anissa’s Acrobats with a mission toward making gymnastics instruction more accessible to children in the Central Vermont area by offering classes and open gym sessions to children ages 2-12 at Thatcher Brook Primary School, Stowe Elementary, Waitsfield Elementary School and Harwood with whatever mats I could fit in the back of my car. It is my hope that the future of gymnastics in Vermont will continue to grow and enhance the lives of children throughout the State. In October 2010 I started Central Vermont Gymnastics Academy in the hopes that space would be found to call home to CVGA. Doors to Central Vermont Gymnastics Academy opened June 19th 2011.
August 29th 2011 just a little over 2 months after opening its doors, CVGA was under three and half feet of water and sludge from hurricane Irene. It was my first day off in 6 weeks and I was sleeping in. I got a phone call from my brother who was doing the morning milking at the farm he worked at and was listening to the news on the radio in the barn when he heard of the devastation in Waterbury. The first thing he asked me was, “Are you okay?” I was very confused, then it hit me, the storm. Oh yes, I had been out the night before stocking up on easy to eat food in case we lost power. Power loss was the only thing I knew to be worried about. While I was at it, I stocked up on supplies for the gym; a ton of toilet paper, arts and crafts, ink for the printer, you name it, if it was an office supply I bought it because the back to school sales are fantastic in August! Then my brother spoke again, “Your gym Anissa, is it okay?” What was he talking about? I was working so many hours at that time I had no cable or internet at home, no land line, just my cell phone. We were never home so why did we need those things? My three kids (15, 12 and 9) did not complain because they spent the summer helping me at the gym. That’s when he told me, downtown Waterbury was under water! I was still in denial, no way, my gym must be okay… it’s on the other side of the bridge, the bridge that goes over the river, to my gym, which is right next to the river! It slowly dawned on me that maybe I was in fact, NOT okay!
I threw on my mud boots, told my kids I would be back and had to go check on the gym. As I got down into town, traffic was stopped. They were not letting cars across the bridge to my gym because the river was still over the bridge. I sat stuck in traffic for what felt like forever… Noticing the awful smell… it was overwhelming! Finally traffic started moving and as I pulled into my parking lot, I realized I was pulling into sludge. The smell was even stronger now. My business neighbors were at my doors peering in. I got the doors unlocked and that is when the devastation hit. What had I done wrong? I remember clear as day that was the first thought that went through my mind. I don’t know why, just, what had I done, did I do something wrong?
There was no power in my building, it was dark and all not firmly planted items had been thrown to one back corner of my gym. I am pretty sure I was in shock. I don’t know where they came from but someone brought me a giant squeegee. I worked until I could not see any longer hauling out water and muck from the gym. I had been alone for hours in my gym, I had one girl friend who came and helped me in my struggle to remove all water and muck, because really, what else could I do. I felt so helpless, I needed to have some action I could do. As I drove back through town that night heading home, my only thoughts were, Thank God it was just my business! So may people I knew had just lost their home, their cars, their family photos, their everything!!! I only lost my business.
Insurance sent an adjuster. They told me I had a total loss. Hurry and get as many of my receipts in as soon as possible and they would get me a check. My only internet access was at the gym. I had to go to friend’s houses to work because there was no power at the gym, no internet, no phone. Weeks of going back and forth with the adjuster trying to get a straight answer, I finally went up the chain of command where I was informed that I would not be receiving any insurance money. I was devastated! What now… quitting was not an option!
FEMA – If you are a business, they send you to Small Business Association (SBA). If you tell them you have been open for two months they very politely try not to laugh as they tell you there is nothing they can do for you. So now, all the equipment I had been buying piece by piece since my travelling program, that I paid cash for up front to build my business literally from the ground up is gone and no way to replace it. I had a goal of reopening in one month! Everyone told me I was crazy and could not do it. These were also the same people who told me I could never open a gym in the first place. Finally, I found a small Vermont program that would give me a small loan. The money would not even begin to replace everything, but it was a start.
I am a very visual person. Hearing dimensions of mats was not working for me. So, I called John Deary of Deary’s Gym Supply and told him what was going on and could I take a road trip to his business to see what he had. John was wonderful and worked with getting me the best deals he could find. I ended up doing quite well and was now on my way to having equipment and mats delivered to the gym. I was very excited to have a “real spring floor” the one I had previously was hand built from plywood picked up at home depot and springs from another gyms old floor. I had less than a week left until my opening date. I had a few parents and their kids helping with the rebuild process, because, most people were still trying to rebuild their home.
We pulled a few all nighters. I had one dad tell me, he was glad to be there to help me because I had coached his daughter from 7th-12th grade and what I did was more than just coach gymnastics, and it was time someone gave back. I tried very hard not to cry in that moment! In the first days after, my then 9 year old son asked my “first friend on scene” if she would help him clean the bathrooms for me. He told her he thought I cried a little every time I walked by them. Not sure if I did, but I wouldn’t be surprised, they were disgusting!
Finally, October 10, 2011 CVGA opened it’s doors again after many people said it could not be done! We had to start over again with advertising and getting recreational kids back into the program. A lot of them had moved on to other sports by then because they needed something to keep their kids active. Slowly, our numbers started to grow again.
On March 18th 2013 Once again CVGA had water damage. This time it was seeping water from snow being plowed to the side of building and the building sitting below the ground. One third of all flooring, carpet bonded foam and mats were under water again! We had State Championships coming up in just two weeks, I could not lose anytime to this. I started checking in with other gyms about practicing at their space. I then realized what a hardship it would be to get my gymnasts there and that I could not keep cancelling classes and this needed to be fixed right way. Again, everyone said it could not be done that quickly. I had a goal of being up and running in two days, we did it. I ran to home depot at 8:00pm and bought carpet on the spot until I could figure out how to get better padding back. I had a crew of 3 people helping me. One owned the fitness gym next door. We had to move all the beams, bars, vaulting area, mats and mats and mats!!! We decided it would be easiest to lay the carpet over a barrier over the whole space of the gym minus the spring floor. This was a huge under taking for four people. But we did it!
March 31st, we were at our State Championships. My daughter came to watch and had my phone. She got a message that my gym had flooded again. The water had come in the same place again because the original problem was never fixed. My boyfriend and son had stopped at the gym to check on something else when they noticed the water damage. They immediately started grabbing all the chairs they could find to get the carpet up off the floor and moved all the mats. I got back about 9:00pm that night to see devastation again! Once again we were on a mission to have the gym back up and running as soon as possible because I could not afford to keep closing and offering make up classes and trying to get everything in. We were able to hold recreational classes utilizing just the floor space and doing vault and beam on floor. Only half of our gym was open but we made it work.
Our lease is up the end of May 2016. We cannot renew our lease and need to move out the flood plain. We need to stay in the area as we are serving a previously underserved region. Unfortunately there are no properties in our town or neighboring towns that are big enough or even have high enough ceilings. At this point our only option is to build. We have found were we want our new home to be, now it is just about coming up with the money to help with the building cost. I have already been told, “You can’t do it” enough to last a life-time. How about a few people start saying, “You can do it!”
UPDATE: After the outpouring of support and a suggestion by a reader Anissa has set up a GO FUND ME Site.
https://www.gofundme.com/ff75hjck
