Us Too Gymnastics Inc

Us Too Gymnastics aims to offer an inclusive, fun, and safe space for children and teenagers with AND without disabilities to learn gymnastics and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Us Too Gymnastics was founded in 2004 by Dena Lusardi, a young mother, whose son was diagnosed with Autism in 2003. Dena, who has a background in gymnastics, understood that physical activity in a fun environment was necessary for the autistic community and that creating this environment would greatly benefit many individuals. With this in mind and trying to meet the needs of her own child, she founded 'Us Too Gymnastics', becoming one of the first and few fitness centers in Orange County, California and the United States to offer this type of service.

One of the main goals of the gym's program is to provide gymnastics classes that encourage social interaction and promote a healthy lifestyle and positive self-esteem. Another goal of the program is to help each student progress to the best of their ability and to feel included as part of a community.

The gym continues to see a significant increase in the number of families requesting services. Still unable to move to a bigger facility, one of our main goals continues to be our relocation project.

In 2023, we had a 25% increase in enrollment when compared to the previous year. On average, the gym is offering services to almost 100 families per month.

This year, while enrollment numbers are similar to last year's; this year we have seen a need to expand hours, hire more coaching and administrative staff in order to keep up with the demand and service more families.

According to the CDC, in 2023, about 1 in 36 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with autism. As we know, there is more awareness and research being conducted to find the cause of autism and ways to help autistic individuals, however, the prevalence continues to be on the rise at an alarming rate. And with few options for places for social interaction and/or exercise, the need to move to a bigger facility or open a second one continues to be an urgent need.

With the need to increase employee salaries to stay competitive, the gym could benefit if there was more funding available to cover extra administrative costs. Currently payroll and program supplies expenses combined are about $50,000/yr, the gym could benefit from a grant of this amount in order to run operations and be able to save funding for future expenditures such as equipment, furniture and employee bonuses.

Us Too Gymnastics is located in the City of Lake Forest in the 92630 zip code. We also serve areas of South Orange County: Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. Other cities we serve include: Santa Ana, Irvine, Tustin, Anaheim, Buena Park, and Fullerton.

In recent years, we have started to serve customers (outside Orange County) from the Inland Empire: Corona and Riverside.

As Executive Director, and as a mother of a child diagnosed with Autism, one of my main goals is to shorten the gap in price between what parents of children with disabilities have to pay for recreational activities vs. what those families with neurotypical kids pay. While I understand that services offered to those with disabilities require providers to have a higher level of education, and sometimes even specialized education, I believe this difference could be less noticeable with more organizations like Us Too Gymnastics. 

And with the number of children being diagnosed with autism on the rise, I know more and more people need to be educated and made aware of the needs of this very vulnerable population.

My wish is that more organizations and individuals would be willing to do their part to create a more respectful and accessible environment for disabled people.

Since becoming familiar with this organization, it's open my eyes to the lack of services available to the autism community and other disabilities as well. This organization and its staff understand the importance of having a place like Us Too Gymnastics open and committed to really helping these families. I choose to volunteer at Us Too Gym because their mission is important to me as a human and as a member of society.