Help GymCity Find a New Home

GymCity urgently needs to find a new home and we desperately need community support to help this happen. Due to the urgent need for affordable housing in Auckland the land our building is on is earmarked for housing. In 2011 we were told that we would have to move. Between then and now we have been unable to find a suitable venue, despite looking into every possible alternative that could accommodate us. The land our building sits on is now going up for sale, and we are running out of time.

For the past 6 years we have being working with the Papatoetoe/Otara Local board who is very supportive and is trying hard to get the local council and Panuku Developments to help find us either a piece of land to build on or a building that we can move too. So far no luck. Unfortunately we have no lease at present and the redevelopment of Old Papatoetoe is moving forward fast. With more new housing in the area, this will bring in more children.

We cannot afford to pay a commercial lease because then our fees would be too expensive for our families in the area. At present we cannot apply for any funding from local or national funders to help with a building as we do not have land or a site that we can say will be ours.

We had over 20,000 participants last year and work with the local schools and preschools. We are open 6 days a week, 50 weeks of the year and are a non-profit organization. We run gymnastic & active movement classes for babies to teens, adapted gymnastics for preschoolers and school aged children with disabilities, a competitive programme, plus we run an affordable Oscar & WINZ approved holiday programme every holidays and Fit 4Life class for adults. GymCity is mobile as well and goes into the local schools, to run gymnastic programmes for them with the support of CMSport and Kiwisport funding.

We have grown so much in the last 6 years that we are running at capacity and need to be relocated to a larger building. It is frustrating that a great service like ours may end. Please help us to get our message out that we need the community's support to ensure our service for the children & families continues for many years to come.