A newly formed gymnastics club in Grand Forks focused on movement therapy, poverty reduction, and youth mental health is having their grand opening next week. Flippin’ Fun Gymnastics President Svetlana Dalla Lana is also a primary care registered nurse with the Boundary Health Care Cooperative, which as she explains is a partnership between Interior Health and the local physician community. She also says she believes child and youth mental health illness is on the rise.
“We want to support all gymnasts, including the vulnerable children and youth population, we feel this gymnastics program is a strategy to develop resilience among our youth.” Dalla Lana tells the My Grand Forks Now newsroom: “It’s a good outlet to let your energy be used and it also gives the kids in our area another healthy outlet for an activity to do….”
She says this is the first formal gymnastics program for the area in about 30 years. Already there are over 100 online applicants and over 80 paid registrants, and the first 8-week program begins May 6th. The organization is also looking for a permanent home.
Dalla Lana says the grand opening has a lot going on:
“Meet the coaches, meet the organizers of the club, view the gymnastics equipment, and we are also going to be having Freshslice Pizza and a cake donated from Overwaitea (Save-On-Foods)…. we’re going to have bouncy castles as well.”
The event hits the Curling Rink on Friday, May 3rd, from 3PM to 7PM.