AURORA —The city’s gymnastics gym at Meadowood Center was as active as a carnival during a routine drop-in day that happens at the south Aurora center four times a week.
More than 20 toddlers and kids bounded across trampoline ramps, rolled over layers of geometric floor mats and rocketed around in an inflatable castle.
“It’s an impressive setup, and my kids look like they’re really enjoying themselves,” said Patti Shady, an Aurora resident who brought her son and daughter to Aurora’s open gymnastics. “It’s a good way to keep them busy and active.”
That lighthearted activity is what the city is aiming for in its new gymnastics programming.
Aurora has offered gymnastics classes in some form or another for more than 30 years. In that time, the program has fluctuated from enormous, competitive classes to a more recent, relaxed focus that emphasizes general play.
“The previous program focused on a competitive club team,” said Byron Fanning, Aurora’s manager of recreation. “The new focus is on recreational gymnastics, which gives boys and girls of all skill levels the ability to learn the sport and get some good, healthy exercise, regardless of ability.”
In 2013, the city suspended its gymnastics program because of a difference in direction that ended with the entire coaching staff leaving the city to open a private gymnastics gym.
City programs taught young athletes who competed in the Colorado Association of Recreational Athletics. The city’s program maxed out at about 600 participants.
“The city of Aurora doesn’t have a competitive gymnastics program anymore,” said Lisa Sparrow, chairwoman of the Colorado Association of Recreational Athletics Gymnastics Committee and former gymnastics instructor for the City of Aurora.
“Essentially what happened was our program got full,” Sparrow said. “We had no more room, we couldn’t expand. “
Record rainfall in September 2013 also flooded the Meadowood Center, so the city closed it and began a renovation that would open half the gym space to general gym activities and restart the gymnastics program on the other side with fewer class offerings, which had been revamped to be noncompetitive.
“We renovated the gym into two very distinct areas,” said Sherri-Jo Stowell, the city’s parks and recreation spokeswoman. “Before, the whole gym was gymnastics, so we weren’t really serving community needs other than kids who wanted to do gymnastics at Meadowood.”
Once the programs reopened last year, enrollment stayed around its current level of 400. But new classes like martial arts, pickle ball and “Hot Shot Lil Stars” were added.
Stowell said that gymnastics is still incredibly popular in the city, and some of the intermediate classes still have a waiting list.
Parents like Mawit Tadesse, who recently brought her two daughters to the drop-in session at Meadowood, said that she would have her girls in more programs if they were offered at other recreation centers.
“Our home is way north of here, but we would do it more often if they brought some of these classes up near us,” Tadesse said.
But expanding to other recreation centers isn’t part of the current vision.
“With such a shortage of indoor recreation space, we need to ensure that all of our programs have ample space,” Fanning said. “We do work closely with the schools and are currently offering programs at Overland High School.”
The school allows the city to use its gym space for some of the popular intermediate overflow classes.
Stowell said, “It’s just one of those amazingly popular programs that stays popular no matter what.”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-2650, mmitchell@denverpost.com or @Mmitchelldp
Drop-in/open gym gymnastics
Where: Meadowood Recreation Center, 3054 S. Laredo St.
Who: Ages 10 and under
When: 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; and Friday evenings from 6-7 p.m. (except the first Friday of every month)
Cost: $5 per child
