ASU gymnasts educate, entertain Maricopa students

Members of the Arizona State University men’s gymnastics team visited Desert Star Gymnastics Thursday, demonstrating tumbling exercises for local kids.

This was one of many fundraisers – a $10 fee was charged to participating children – the team does to raise money for their gymnastics program, which hasn’t been funded by ASU since 1991.

“We’ll travel to elementary schools all over the place and put on shows to entertain and teach kids to raise money for our program,” said ASU gymnast Thomas Hanson.

“We do a lot of our fundraising by setting up equipment for competitions for kids,” teammate Lee Wilkerson said.

Competition season is usually from October or November until May.

Hanson said the team does all of its training at the Aspire Gymnastics Academy in Chandler, as their gym on campus was torn down and turned into a valet bike-rack station in 2001.

This is the second time members of ASU men’s gymnastics team have come to Desert Star, the gym’s director, Amy Bratlie, said.

‘’I love it; it’s such an unrecognized sport,” she said. “These guys are highly-trained athletes, and they are very outgoing and great working with the kids.”

Tanya Alvarado has brought her 7-year-old daughter Payton to Desert Star Gymnastics for six years.

“My daughter has been talking about it all week,” Alvarado said. “It’s a real treat to have her see how these guys do it.”

Bratlie said the team has also visited Sequoia Pathway Academy, where she teaches, to speak to the kids about overcoming adversity and staying off drugs.

Desert Star Gymnastics started in the dance room at a preschool seven years ago before moving to its current location on Murphy Road and Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, just east of the city limits.

***ADVERTISEMENT***“We are still the smallest certified gymnastics gym in the state,” Bratlie said of her 100 to 150 enrolled students.

Joshua Stimmer, 8, was among the 30 or so kids who participated Thursday.

“This is awesome,” he said. “I love how they help us get better.”