Palatine Gymnastics - Club History


The Palatine Gymnastics Club was founded in April 1977 by Dorothy Erikson with the assistance of the Palatine High School gymnastics coaches, Sandy Oldham and John Schrammel.

Dorothy spent many months investigating the possibilities of organizing a non-profit parent-owned program. Her daughter, Lori was a highly rated club gymnast in Minnesota when they moved to Palatine in the fall of 1976. Because Lori wanted to compete for Palatine High School, it became important that the new club welcome and support high school gymnasts. Dorothy discovered that rental, insurance, and purchase of equipment were very costly. Leonard Newendorf, the principal at Palatine High School at that time, encouraged her to speak to Fred Hall at the Palatine Park District. Fred made it possible to form a gymnastics club within the Palatine Park District's recreation program.

The first session in the spring of 1977 had sixty students, taught by four instructors and was held at Palatine High School. That summer, the enrollment increased to 120 students. It moved to Community Center two years later. Many of our coaches and instructors have been with our program for many years, or are former team members. This gives our club a sense of loyalty and pride. In June of 1996, we moved from our home on the shelf to our new facility, complete with a soft foam-training pit. Currently, we have an enrollment of over 600 team and class gymnasts, with a staff of thirty.

To help convince the Palatine Park District's Board of Commissioners to build the present gymnastics facility, the Parents' Club committed to Palatine Park District $50,000 payable over ten (10) years. This was a deciding factor in building our addition. The first payment of $5,000 was made in September of 1996 at the Open House for the new gym. The payments thereafter were to be made at the end of each Parents' Club fiscal year, July 31. The last payment was to have been made in the year 2005.

Palatine Gymnastics Parents' Club received a $20,000 donation from the Mari-Rae Sopper Memorial Fund on June 1, 2003. The remaining balance of $15,000 on this commitment was paid off in September 2003 with this donation. Thus, the Parents' Club became debt free.