A Little Girls Dream. A Lifetime Love

I fell in love with gymnastics when I was 7 years old just like any other little kid. It was fun and it was exciting and it made me so happy. In middle school we wrote essays on what we wanted to be when we grew up and I wrote about how I wanted to be a gymnastics coach. I started as a coaching aide when I was 14 at Community Schools in Negaunee. I loved how coaching was like a puzzle and you had to figure out the right way to explain a skill to help an athlete get it. Through the years I focused on becoming a head coach as I knew owning my own gym would be financial impossible. I was able to run successful gymnastics and cheer programs at Community Schools, the YMCA, MAPS, and IHS.

I wish I could say that West End was created out of an abundance of I can do anything I set my mind to attitude but it wasn’t. The summer of 2023 saw dozens of kids signed up for summer camps with me and then out of no where our space was no longer available. I was so frustrated as it wasn’t the first time something like this happened. Gymnastics is not a sport that gets a lot of priority. So I pivoted and we did gymnastics at the park. It wasn’t ideal, weather and bugs were an issue, but I put on my best Coach Bridget smile and did my thing. But I was mad.

My husband will be the first to tell you that when I get a bee in my bonnet it’s best to just move out of the way and let me at it. I started to half heartedly look at spaces to rent because the park was only going to last us until the first snowflake flew and I was tired of getting pulled around. As it turned out one of the places I’d always said would be a great little gym was for rent and a friend I used to work with was the person showing it. A quick text and I was in there looking around. It was perfect: great location, great price, great layout. I went to the bank and they were beyond excited when they heard my proposal and they told me I had their full support and were sending me to an accountant to go over things. I went in fully expecting them to tell me no. It was crazy, you couldn’t do this, it’s not for you.

The accountant would surely tell me no. She listened to my proposal, looked over the estimated numbers I put down, tweaked some things and then said “go sign your lease, we are doing this”. My jaw was on the floor. I couldn’t believe the unobtainable dream of owning my own gym was happening. Three months after being told we couldn’t use our original space I cut the ribbon on MY space.

I named it West End because my gym is a gift to my community. I grew up in Negaunee, I’m raising my family in Ishpeming. There is no place I’d rather live and work. Kids on the west end of the county miss out on so many opportunities because almost everything is in Marquette. I know I did as a kid. Opening my gym I wanted to make a place kids and families could call home and it truly has flourished into that and I am so thankful.