Please consider helping us go to Nationals 2016, host a meet in memory of former coach Don Tonry and make gymnastics accessible to everyone at Yale.
Dear Friends of Yale Gymnastics,
We hope that you all had relaxing December holidays with family and friends. We write to you with an update about Yale Club Gymnastics (YCG) and a bit about our plans for the upcoming competition season.
Since the club developed out of Don Tonry’s tumbling class and was formally recognized as a club sport at Yale in 2013, we have been committed to making the great sport of artistic gymnastics accessible to everyone on campus. This semester, we have a dedicated core team of 18 members. We’ve added a Saturday practice so that we can accommodate different schedules as well as have more practice time (three times per week rather than two). We got our feet wet at our first competition on December 5 in Boston. It was a great opportunity for people to try out their routines early in the season and for our new members to experience a competition.
We’ll be attending a couple more meets in February and March 2016, but our greatest hope is to attend the National meet in April 2016. Each year the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) hosts a meet for all of the club gymnastics teams in the country to demonstrate their hard work as well as get to know each other. Last year, YCG attended the national meet, held in Philadelphia, and had an incredible experience. This year, the meet will be in Sacramento, California. The team entry prices for the meet are already quite high, but the added flight and lodging costs make it impossible for us to attend without asking our members to put forth hundreds of dollars each. Members already pay a significant membership fee for YCG, so we would love to be able to send 10 to 12 gymnasts to Sacramento with your support. We hope that any gymnast who wants to go will be able to compete at nationals, regardless of his/her financial background. This year, when taking into account the meet fees, NAIGC membership fees, flight costs, ground transportation costs, hotel costs, and the food and NAIGC Banquet costs, it will cost $710 per gymnast to attend Nationals. We hope that you might be able to help send our team to Sacramento for this great opportunity.
Furthermore, we are hoping to host a home-meet in honor of former coach Don Tonry in the spring semester. With high costs for renting a gym, EMTs, and judges, we are not sure that we’ll be able to move forward with this plan. We are hoping that we might be able to make it happen with your help!
If you can contribute, please follow the directions below for a simple, tax-deductible online donation:
1) Click here to go to Yale’s online donation page
2) Enter gift type as “New Gift”
3) Select “Other” from the “I would like to support” drop-down menu.
4) In the “Specify Other” field, put “Desig. #31413 – Gymnastics Club”
5) Enter gift frequency and amount
6) Hit “Next” at the bottom of the page and follow the instructions on the screen to complete your donation.
If we don’t raise enough money to fully cover the costs of Nationals and the home meet, we will use the donations to subsidize individual travel and meet expenses. In the case that we receive excess funds, the donations will help us build a stronger and more inclusive team in the future by decreasing membership fees and furthering our mission to give everyone at Yale a shot at gymnastics.
We hope that you consider donating to our team, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or comments. Have a very happy holiday!
Best,
Abby Cheskis and Alden D’Souza Philipp Arndt
YCG Co-Presidents YCG Co-Founder
Contact:
yaleclubgymnastics@gmail.com
yaleclubgymnastics.com
facebook.com/yaleclubgymnastics