You can help Murraylands gymnasts’ $1.5 million dream come true – here’s how

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The Murraylands’ gymnasts need your help to achieve their ultimate dream of a new, purpose-built home at Murray Bridge Showground.

The Murraylands Gymnastics Academy has been without a permanent base since last December, when a rain storm made its old facility uninhabitable.

Its coaches have been running classes out of a much smaller building on Chris Collins Court ever since, but its lease will run out within months and its future – and that of the hundreds of gymnasts who participate every week – remains in limbo.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the academy could build a bespoke, $1.5-million facility at Murray Bridge Showground?

That’s what at stake as they make a final pitch to the federal government.

All they need now is to demonstrate the community’s support for the project.

Head coach Jemma Tilley is calling for testimonials from local women or girls who do gymnastics, or who have done in the past, by next Wednesday, August 28.

“Basically we want anyone who has been part of gymnastics over our nearly 40 years … (to let us know) what it means to do gymnastics, and how gymnastics has impacted their lives,” she said.

“We want a bigger facility … what would that mean to them?”

The MGA’s plan is to build a brand new facility on the east side with:

• an Olympic-sized floor
• ceilings at least eight metres high
• competition-grade trampolines
• space for its apparatus, which are all stuck in storage
• capacity to accommodate up to 1000 participants

The academy also applied for $300,000 worth of new equipment through a second stream of the federal Play Our Way program, announced in the wake of last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup to support women and girls in sport.

More than 1000 organisations around Australia applied for funding; but of those, only a few hundred – including the gymnastics academy – were invited to submit letters, pictures, videos or other evidence of the need for new facilities.

Applicants have to demonstrate that their projects will benefit women and girls, increase female participant numbers and/or address a specific barrier to participation.

Responses to the MGA survey so far have been overwhelmingly supportive:

• “You deserve this grant more than any other club, given what you’ve been through and what you offer our community”
• “We need to encourage and support young girls – 10-17 years specifically – so they don’t drop out of sports – this is a critical time in their physical and mental development”
• “My daughter ... has gained such an obvious amount of courage and the desire to try new equipment from participating”
• “My daughter loves coming to classes twice per week and improving her skills ... I know she would benefit greatly from improved facilities”
• “Just imagine if we have the next Simone Biles in our town/council area somewhere, waiting to be encouraged and trained!”

If the MGA were successful, and included in the first of three annual funding rounds, the region’s gymnasts could have their new facility by 2027.

In announcing the funding, federal Sport Minister Anika Wells said the time had come for women’s sport to be properly supported.

“Too often women and girls are changing in men’s bathrooms, wearing hand-me-down boys’ uniforms, playing with men’s equipment on poor fields that boys’ teams wouldn’t train on,” she said.

“Play Our Way will address these issues to help women and girls enjoy sport for life.”

In the meantime, Narelle Roe-Simons hoped the Murraylands Gymnastics Academy could either move back to its old digs on Thomas Street when its lease expired, or find somewhere new in the very near future.

“We’re losing people because (the current facility) is too small,” she said.

“The ones who have been doing it for a long time are bored (without any apparatus).

“There’s only so much we can do.”

She encouraged anyone with a spare shed that might suit a band of gymnasts to get in touch.

Hopefully, when the Murraylands Gymnastics Academy turns 40 next year, its members will have something to celebrate.

• Have your say: Fill in the survey at www.surveymonkey.com before August 28.
• Contact the MGA about a possible venue:Email murraylandsgym@yahoo.com.au or call 0466 674 849.
• More information: Visit www.murraylandsgymnastics.com.au or search for Murraylands Gymnastics Academy on Facebook.

Clarification: The survey link did not work correctly in an earlier version of this story. Responses from some survey participants have been added since this story was published.