We’re having some fun now! We have a great group of girls that are excited about gymnastics and working hard to be their best, this is exciting and makes for a great time in the gym. We have started working on sequences of the routines and putting things in place to be ready for competition. Competition is just around the corner and there is lots of work to be done. Open gym and clinics are great times to work on those skills. Make sure to have the Mandatory Parents Meeting on your calendar (March 11^th). I am so proud of the girls, the work they are doing and the fun they are having doing it. Keep it up ladies you’re awesome!

This is a VERY important Newsletter! Please read the section on Fees & Fundraisers, there is a lot going on!

Clinics

Monday Night Clinics (7:45 – 8:30) and Thursday Clinics (4:00 – 5:00) are a great way to get some extra attention on specific skills. Clinics cost $8 per participant. With a smaller group ratio this extra time with a coach can really help your improvement.

MONDAY CLINICS

Feb 8^th – Bars and Beam

Feb 15^th – No Clinic, No Practice!

Feb 22^nd - Vault and Tumble Tramp!

Mar 1^st – Kips & BHS

Mar 8^th – Comp Floor Routines

Mar 15^th – FHS & other Tumbling

Mar 22^nd – Bars and Tumbling

Mar 29^th – Vault & Bars

THURSDAY COMP CLINICS

Feb 4^th – Bars

Feb 11^th – Back Handsprings

Feb 18^th – Beam

Feb 25^th - Floor Skills

Mar 4^th – Kips & FHC

Mar 11^th – No Clinic – Parents Mtg

Mar 18^th – Frnt & Bck Handsprings

Mar 25^th – Routine Review

THURSDAY OPTIONAL CLINICS

Feb 4^th – Vault & Tumble Tramp

Feb 11^th – Beam

Feb 18^th – Tumbling

Feb 25^th - Bars

Mar 4^th – Floor – Fulls & More

Mar 11^th – No Clinic – Parents Mtg

Mar 18^th – Beam – Everything!

Mar 25^th – Bar Releases & Giants

In order to attend the Monday and Thursday clinics you must sign up and pay at the front desk more than 24 hrs before the clinic. Clinics fill up fast so sign up early! If you have not registered in advance you CANNOT just stay for a clinic. There are a limited number of spaces so reserve your spot now. To register, see or call the front desk at MDW. CALL 303-326-8300 to sign up!

Competition Leos

Roughly every 5 years we change our competitive leotard as the previous style gets harder to obtain from the manufacturer. This is the year that we get New Leos! The Leotard that has been selected is fantastic and will look beautiful on every girl regardless of age or size. We are sizing the girls in practice so you do not need to worry about what size leo you need to order for your daughter, I am placing the order for the new leos on Feb 19^th, so we need to receive payment (to Aurora Illusions) by Feb 18^th. The cost of the new Leo is $95. This will be a VERY large order with more than 130 girls on our team so please make your leo payment ASAP.

EVERY TEAM MEMBER NEEDS A NEW LEO THIS SEASON SO PLEASE MAKE YOUR PAYMENT BY Feb 18^th!

Competition Fees & Expenses

Here are the fees and the due dates for your calendar and financial planning.

COMPETITION FEES:

February 19 – Team Leotard Paid ($95). We are getting New Leos this year so EVERY team member will need to purchase a competition Leo.

March 11 – Parent Volunteer Fund Deposit ($50) to be held in deposit against 6 hour of volunteer work during the course of the season.

March 11 – Mandatory Parents Meeting and Team Exhibition. This is the night we have our yearly parents meeting, distribute the new team handbook, and go over the details of the upcoming season. It is held at Overland HS during our normal practice time and at least one parent for each gymnast is asked to attend. All gymnasts on Team will work out at Overland this evening and then perform a short exhibition following the meeting. Please place this date on your calendar now so that you will be able to attend.

Note: Pre-team has normal practice at Meadowood. Enjoy having the gym to yourself!

April 8 – League Fee Due ($100 to $115) The final amount due will be determined once we have a final C.A.R.A. competition fee and it is determined we will host the Regional and State meets. The league fee covers participation in 4 regular season meets, Regionals and State, if qualified. It also offsets our coaches’ pay for working meets.

May 5 – Final Date for all fees to be paid. This is the final deadline for all the above fees to be paid by if the original due dates were missed. A gymnast cannot start regular season competition until the competition leo, the Parent Volunteer Fund and league fee have been paid.

Payments & Switching Nights

As a reminder we wanted to post our payment and switching night policies.

Payment Policy

Team and Pre-Team payments are due on the first of each month. If payments are not made by the 15^th of the month a $5 late fee will automatically be posted to your account. If payment has not been received by the 20^th of the month your daughter may not be able to participate in practice and competition (for Team) until your account is brought current.

Team and Pre-Team payments can be made in person at Meadowood’s front desk or by calling them at (303) 326-8300.

If you would like to make on-line payments please contact Marlene Nothstine at mnothsti@auroragov.org.

Switching Nights and Scheduling Make-Ups

Once you have communicated the nights your daughter(s) will attend practice you cannot switch your nights of practice unless you receive permission from Alan Herron at aherron@auroragov.org. Do not communicate your wish to change nights to the front desk. We schedule coaches based on the nights the gymnastics office has on file for each gymnast. If you switch nights it can cause issues with the coach to gymnast ratio. At this time our Team is extremely full. Switching nights could be a challenge and students might have to be placed on a wait list until a spot becomes available.

To schedule a make-up for a missed practice you can come on another day that your class is offered or attend an open gym. Missed practices are not subject to a prorated rate. You have one month from the time a practice is missed to make it up. Any practice not made up within the month time frame will be forfeited.

Thank you and please let Alan or Marlene know if you have any questions or concerns.

E-mail Updates

We are updating our e-mail distribution list for Team. If you are interested in getting updates and e-newsletters please get on our list. Please send us an e-mail to be added to our Distribution List!

Important Practice Time

We will spend the next few months teaching and working on the routines for competition. Since we introduce a small portion each week it is VERY important that you make every effort to be at practice each week. We do review however, each week we introduce a new portion of the routine and spend quite a bit of time on it so the girls can do it correctly. In order to really get full instruction on the entire routine you don’t want to miss a week! If you want to add a night of practice this is a great time! Most girls come 2 nights a week and the extra workouts REALLY help the girls’ progress. We currently still have openings at our Friday workout from 4-6 but they are going fast! Let us know if you want to add that workout to your schedule.

Current Team Practice Times

Our current Team schedule is:

Monday

Compulsory & Pre-team Workout: 5:30 – 7:30

Optional Workout: 6:30 – 9:00

*Compulsory Clinics: 7:45 – 8:30

Tuesday

Compulsory & Pre-team Workout: 5:00 – 7:00

Optional Workout: 6:30 – 9:00

Wednesday

Pre-team Workout: 6:00 – 8:00

**DBA Additional Workout: 3:30 – 5:30

Thursday

Compulsory & Pre-team Workout: 5:00 – 7:00

Optional Workout: 6:30 – 9:00

*Compulsory & Optional Clinics: 4:00 – 5:00

Friday

Compulsory & Optional Workout: 4:00 – 6:00

*Open Gym: 6:00 – 7:30

*Additional Fee and sign up required

**Additional Fee, Open to Optional Level Only

Budgets & Age

It is hard to believe that we converted the gym at Meadowood to a permanent gymnastics facility more than 13 years ago! This has been a great home for us and our program has continued to grow and enjoy this small but well equipped space. As we head into 2010 and future years I have tried to project and plan for equipment replacement and care. This gets exceedingly more difficult as budgets are cut and belts are tightened. We have always been committed to providing a great program, with top quality equipment, at a fair value, and each year we spend the full budget allotment from the city to maintain and improve our equipment. We try to help with participant costs by providing fundraisers that benefit the gymnast at a greater percentage than they benefit the Team, we will continue to do that. As some of the original equipment in the gym reaches the ripe age of 13+ years we will be trying to systematically replace those items that need it and service what we can. We have planned a few fundraising ideas that will help raise money for these purposes; we hope that you will be involved in those activities to help the overall program. Our commitment will always be to safety, quality, and the best gymnastics program you can be a part of. Please see section on fundraising for information on Leo sales, DU Gymnastics Tickets, and Lockers. All processes that will help fund our equipment upgrades.

Team Expectation – Compete!

I think that it makes sense to most that participating on a Team usually involves competition. In fact, in the introductory information that we go through with each new member to our program we explain that our Team expectation is for our members to be involved in the CARA League Competition. There are of course rare family circumstances or injuries that might prevent someone from competing, but it should be known that our expectation is for all of our Team members to be involved in the competitive season. If you are not planning to compete in the 2010 season you should discuss your situation with Alan right away. CARA Gymnastics is one of the most positive and enriching competitive experiences that I have found in all my years of coaching. Our Team stresses and believes in each individual’s accomplishment and improvement. With no Team scores kept the fear of letting down the Team is minimal, progression of each gymnast is more the mark of success. We often say that the gymnast scoring 8’s and 9’s is no more important to us than the gymnast scoring 5’s and 6’s. We want to see each girl reach her potential, and enjoy the process of facing challenges and making improvements. In this program it is very possible and expected that every athlete can have success and be noticed for it. We spend a lot of time and energy making the transition into competition smooth and positive. If your child is having second thoughts about competition please let me know and lets us work with you and your daughter. This is a great team and a great program, we know that each girl can and will have success. We hope you understand why we expect everyone to compete.

Fundraising

We currently have several fundraisers in the works to help with the start of our season. Please participate in those that you can as many of them help you and our Team. Fundraised money goes to your team account can be spent on anything related to the gymnastics program. Team fees, leos, warm ups, tuition, etc. If you leave the Aurora Illusions Team any money in your account is forfeited to the Team.

Buttter Braids – Butter Braid order forms went out the end of last month for girls to sell. Order forms and money should be returned to the gymnastics office by February 5^th. Butter Braids will be delivered on Feb 11^th to Meadowood in time for you to pick up following practice at 7 pm. We will be available for you to pick up anytime between 6:30 – 9:00pm. Girls selling Butterbraids and picking them up on the 11^th will get $3 credited to their team account and $1 toward the team for each BB sold. Those failing to pick up their order on the 11^th will receive $2 to their account and the team will get $2 for storing your product.

ALL ORDERS MUST BE PICKED UP FEB 11^th.

This is a frozen product and we cannot store items that are not picked up on Feb 11^th.

Carrabba’s Lunch – This is a GREAT and yummy fundraiser! We have a special lunch scheduled for Saturday, Feb 27^th. You can go to Carrabba’s anytime between 11:30 – 2:30 with your prepaid lunch ticket and receive a great meal of Chicken Marsala or Salmon along with all the fixins, bread, salad, side, soft drink, and dessert! All for $15 a person. We make $6 on each ticket sold ($5 to your account, $1 to team per ticket) and you and your friends get a fantastic meal! Talk to your friends, figure out how many tickets you need. Purchase the tickets from the gymnastics office, then arrive at Carrabba’s on Abiliene in Aurora anytime between 11:30 – 2:30 give them your ticket and enjoy a great meal!

DU Gymnastics Tickets – We have selected two fun DU gymnastics meets to try to go to and attend as a team! February 19^th and March 13^th. Tickets are $9 per person and can be purchased from the gymnastics office or at the Meadowood front desk. Go as a family, take a bunch of your friends, we want Aurora Illusions to show up in force! The more tickets we sell the more money our team makes and the more fun we have at the meet because so many of our teammates are there! This is a fundraiser to help make money for new equipment! Plan to attend both nights for some great gymnastics competition. Get inspired to push yourself to the level of these outstanding college athletes and just enjoy an evening with teammates and friends watching the sport you love! Tickets for both meets are available NOW! Get your tickets now. Children 3 and under are admitted free, all seats are general admission. Let’s go girls! This is going to be a great night of gymnastics, let’s do it together!

Leo Sales – Most of you have probably seen the leos hanging on the wall by the tumble tramp. Well when there is no room for a pro shop, we just climb the wall! We have great leos in all the girls sizes through a fun company called Foxy’s Fitness. We receive new leos about every 60 days and send back what we have not sold, so we always have new styles and colors to choose from. Leos range in price from $20 - $40 depending on the fabric used and we make a small profit on each item sold. These leos are available to anyone and we will sell them at our meets this season as well to help raise money for gym equipment. We have already sold leos to kids in our class program as well as several of our Team members. Good leos can be hard to find locally so find what your daughter wants right in our own gym! Talk to Lisa or Alan to schedule a time to look and try on leos, and help the team with this ongoing money maker for our program.

Team Lockers – By next week I hope to have our new lockers in the gym, they are currently being painted so they look great and we should have them installed soon. I want to thank Mrs. Hanley who thought of the team when these lockers were going to be dumped by her work! With a little muscle and work we got these for free! YEAH! The new lockers will provide additional space for the girls on our team to place their belongings when at practice. They will also provide us another great way to make money to support our program. Many of these new lockers (roughly the size of our current cubbies) will have combination locks on them. Girls that are interested can rent a locker to keep some of their stuff at the gym all the time. Optionals and Compulsories that are in the gym more than a couple of times per week might really like this huge convienience! We have 32 potential lockers to rent out on a first come first serve basis. Girls are welcome to share them if they want and split the cost but with a locker the size of our cubbies you might want one of your own. Here are the prices if you are interested in renting a locker!

By the Week: $2 per week for a minimum of 12 weeks (3 months) – Cost $24

By the Month: $6 per month for a minimum of 6 months – Cost $36

By the Year: Best Value at $50 per Year! – Cost $50

If you’re interested in renting a locker at the gym talk to Alan to make arrangements! This could be really great to keep your some of your personal belongings at the gym instead of carting them back and forth all the time! Plus it helps the team! If we rent just 10 lockers for the year that is $500 or more to help by new equipment and other stuff for the team! Love the new lockers, hope you like them too!