Who are we?

We are a small group of volunteer parents and acro gymnastics coaches who decided to form a new acro gymnastics club following a devastating fire. Acro gymnastics represents a blend of creative elements - it combines movement, acrobatics, dance and gymnastics through music and choreography. It's a partnership or team performance activity. 

• STV News - Fire leaves 700 gymnasts without training facilities
• Kids devastated as gymnastics Christmas shows cancelled after massive fire guts base - Daily Record
• New West Lothian gymnastics club to launch after catastrophic fire - Edinburgh Evening News
• Plan for new West Lothian acro gymnastics club following fire and liquidation - Daily Record

The fire just before Christmas and the resulting liquidation of the local acro gymnastics club led us to form Elevate Acro Gymnastics Club on 11 January 2025. 

There are around 700 young gymnasts located in and around West Lothian who were impacted by the loss of their gymnastics facility and we want to help as many as possible continue to enjoy what gymnastics has to offer in terms of community, friendship, confidence, empowerment, health and wellbeing and most of all fun. We already have nearly 400 gymnasts registered to find out more about the club programme.

We want to offer affordable, accessible gymnastics sessions for children that might not be able to participate and reap the benefits the sport has to offer. We would like to provide a full programme of classes to cater for all including ASN, homeschool, teens and boys which we know there is demand for.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We are just setting up and while we are incredibly grateful to the local clubs and businesses who have stepped in to support and lend their facilities for our classes, our ultimate goal would be to have our own facility in one location to create the community and culture young gymnasts deserve to thrive.  

There are also elite gymnasts who have worked for years to get to national level and the Scottish Pathway but have nowhere they can train for the number of hours they need to maintain their standard to compete. But what's equally important are the gymnasts just getting started on their gymnastics journey - the future acro gymnastics champions!

The current multi-site model limits our abilities to cater for all and provide the full programme we would like to due to availability and the equipment and storage available in each facility. 

We share the space with other clubs and currently need to set up and pack away for every session and borrowing the club's own equipment and working around their well established schedules. 

We are working with various people to find a unit that we can move into and hope to create a dedicated facility by the end of the year. But once we secure the premises we will need funds to equip it to meet our needs, to provide a safe, supportive space for our gymnasts to enjoy challenging themselves and building their confidence. 

Our own venue will also help us offer sessions to a wider range of community members, including parents and toddlers, children with disabilities, local schools, youth services and adult, freestyle/parkour and movement classes for the elderly and isolated.

How will we use the money raised?

The money raised will be used to secure and set up a property which will become our new home. This will be the biggest step we take on our journey to setting up the gym and creating the amazing new space we want to offer to our local community.  

Our overall goal is to raise £100,000 which will let us get a gymnastics facility up and running and support our club in the first year. But there are lots of tangible targets for us to meet along the way to help us maintain momentum to achieve our end goal. 

These items include as examples:  

• £50,000 covers our initial letting fee and expenses for a year 
• £40,000 - Sprung floor (depends on size of facility) to enhance the experience of all of our members and allow them to learn new skills and perfect their existing skills safely. Without a sprung floor our more advanced gymnasts are not able to complete some of their skills and floor routines.
• £399 - Four tier vaulting box
• £695 - Beemat Coaching Block 
• £3,600 - Gym time apparatus pack
• £2,680 - Landing mats x 4
• £400 - ASN Corner Cabinet op 1
• £1,395 - ASN roller slide
• £500 - ASN texture mats
• £1,900 - Wall bars
• £6,000 - Fast Track
• £600 - Tumble track

This list would see us fully operational from Day 1.

The money raised will go towards making the new facility suitable for our activities and a friendly place to meet others interested in our sport. 

Community impact

Sport has a positive impact on young people and communities. The main areas that we will impact as a gymnastics club in West Lothian are:

• Retention of women and girls in sport but also inclusion and encouragement of boys into acro gymnastics where they are currently underrepresented
• Encourage inclusivity in membership
• Opportunities for children in areas of deprivation                                                    
• Activities for children with additional needs
• Activities for homeschooling parents and their children 

Gymnastics can help a child develop confidence in themselves and physical competency that can carry through into all other physical activities, making them happy to participate in new sports and challenge themselves in different ways.

With anxiety and poor mental health impacting more and more children, gymnastics training is a safe place where children can escape to and focus on the activity and build connections in a different environment. 

We have plans to offer more day time sessions for parents and toddlers, classes for children who are home-schooled, and dedicated additional needs sessions for children from local schools. 

Our facility will also enable us to increase the team of staff we have as we could provide more secure work and career development.  

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!