Meet One of our Wonderful Volunteers!

ShaDe Brown

ShaDe is both an Aim High mom and a volunteer.

She works at the front desk,

where her beautiful smile welcomes students, parents, and guests as they enter.

She has three children, two of which are in the Aim High program:

Destiny is on the Level 4 Team

and Terrone is in the FAST boys class.

 

ShaDe is shown enrolling a new student.

ShaDe likes to watch movies (her favorite is "I Am Sam")

but she also likes to watch basketball and read.

Her favorite holidays are Christmas and Mother's Day.

One person she respects is her mother, Pam Brooks,

who, in ShaDe's words, "helps me to be a better mother."

ShaDe values honesty and love

and says she enjoys helping others.

 

We are thankful for ShaDe

and all of our volunteers!

 

Aim High Academy

is greatly blessed

by so many who give so much.

THANK YOU!

 

 

 

YOU ARE INVITED!

Please come and share this special evening with us.

Meet our Board...See the children in their classes.

Tour our beautiful facility...Watch the awards.

You will be blessed.



TUTORING

Aim High Academy desires that every gymnastics student

achieves his/her full potential.

 

Therefore, it is important to us

that our students do well in school.

 

That is why we offer free tutoring

for any student and his/her siblings

on Monday and Thursday evenings.

We have been blessed with wonderful volunteers

who offer instruction and encouragement to those students

who come to the tutoring room.

We are grateful for students from Regent Preparatory School

for giving their time and talents to minister to our students.

We cannot adequately thank our volunteers...

both from Regent and other walks in our community...

for your service.

To Carol Spears, who coordinates the Regent students,

and to Adrienne Barnes, Aim High's Tutoring Coordinator:

 

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!

 

You have blessed Aim High Academy.

 

WE APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU!

Only heaven knows the difference you have made in children's lives.

 



Last week this blogger visited Aim High Academy twice

and each time was blessed.

 

Blessing #1:

This precious little gymnast (shown in photo with Coach Elizabeth)

shared with me the Bible verse Aim High had assigned:

 

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:13

 

Such a blessing to hear TRUTH

being spoken by such a little one!

 

BLESSING #2:

One mother told me that Aim High is the only "church"

her two children receive.

 

I am thankful for Aim High Academy,

where boys and girls can participate in a quality program

that not only teaches life skills through sport

but also meets spiritual needs.



H I P H O P

HIP HOP dance refers to street dance styles

primarily performed to hip hop music.

 

On Monday evenings, Aim High Academy offers a class in

Hip Hop dance.

 

Michael Light Harrison demonstrating a move for his students at Aim High.

 

 

Although Michael makes this style of dance look easy,

this blogger bets the students feel very challenged!

 

Although Aim High Academy's main focus is to offer gymnastics,

we are also offering various forms of dance in an effort

to utilize the space with which we have been blessed.

 

And here's the good news: we have room for more students

in our dance classes!

We currently offer the following classes:

Ballet

Hip Hop

African Dance

 

Call 918-794-4774 for more information.

 

Aim High Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation

and depends upon donations (along with grants and fund-raising)

to fund its program.

We would appreciate your support!

To donate online, visit www.aimhighgym.org



Happy Valentine's Day!

 

We love each one of our precious students!

Each child...Every day.

 

 

Aim High strives to teach every student

that he/she is special to God

and that God has a plan for his/her life.

 

 

Jesus said,

"Suffer the little children

to come unto me"

...and He took them up in His arms,

put His hands upon them,

and blessed them.

Mark 10: 14-16

 

 

 



Dominique Dawes visits Aim High!

Tuesday, December 17th,

Aim High Academy gymnasts and their families

enjoyed a visit from a very special guest:

Dominique Dawes!

 

Known in the gymnastics community as 'Awesome Dawesome,'

Dominique was 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team,

the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion,

a three-time Olympian,

 a World Championships silver medalist,

and a member of the gold-medal winning "Magnificent Seven"

at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Dawes is also notable as being the first African-American woman

to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics,

and the first black person of any nationality or gender

to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics.

 

 

Dominique was so generous with her time.

She gave a very inspirational talk to our kids,

emphasizing the fact that hard work pays off with results,

and for success in any part of life,

one can only expect an outcome that is equal to preparation.

 

She then autographed photo cards for every person who wanted one

and posed for photos with each.

 

What a blessing to have Dominique visit!

We appreciate her giving so freely of her time to inspire our kids!

We were blessed.

 

Thank you, Dominique!!!

 



Leotards Wanted!

Did you know?

When a new gymnast enrolls in our program

she is allowed to choose one leotard

from our leotard rack.

And there is no charge for this!

Each student can "trade up" as she grows.

She simply returns her clean outgrown leotard

and selects another one.

 

 

BUT...

since so many of our students enroll between the ages of 2 and 6,

we constantly are in need of more XXS, XS, S, and M leotards!

XXS and XS are especially needed.
The above photo shows how few XXS, XS, and S leos we currently have.
 

If you have any used, clean leotards

that you would be willing to donate

(even larger sizes are welcomed)

we would be so grateful!

And precious girls will be so blessed!

 

Aim High Academy is a nonprofit organization

and will send you a tax-deductible receipt (if requested).

 

Leotards can be delivered to our gym

(please call 918-794-4774 to be sure gym is open) 

OR

you can contact us to make arrangements

Jennifer@aimhighgym.org or OUSuz@aol.com

OR

ship to Aim High Academy

8177 S. Harvard Avenue #424, Tulsa OK 74137.

All donations will be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU!!!

 

 “You have not lived today until you have done something
for someone who can never repay you.”  
Quote from John Bunyon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



August 10 Work Day

Excitement is building as Aim High gets ready

to move into its new home!

Saturday, August 10, was the first of two scheduled work days

to prepare the new building for September classes.

 

Furniture and other things needed to be moved

before cleaning and painting could begin.

 

 







Jennifer had a task for everyone!

Sondra and Bonnie did a great job cleaning the kitchen!

Cleaning the tutoring room.

Demolition on the sound booth was begun.

Meanwhile, in one of the preschool gyms:

 


 

Still a work in progress - but won't our preschoolers just love this gym???



 


So many light bulbs to change!
 



Who doesn't love an organized supply closet?



Little Maddie did some "pretend" painting.

And...at the end of the day...
things got a little crazy!

But seriously,
we were blessed to have so many
wonderful volunteers
show up and work so hard!
We appreciate each and every one of you!

Many thanks to Asbury Methodist Church,
Cornerstone Assistance Network,
Freedom Church of Owasso, and
theCHURCH.at (Battle Creek) for
sending groups out to help.

Our prayer is that God will be glorified in this place.





Meet our Board of Trustees

Board of Trustees

A body of elected or appointed members

who jointly oversee the activities of an organization. 

 

Aim High is blessed to have a dedicated, caring Board of Trustees.

Left to right: Gerry Raubach, Jerry Isaacs, Rich Howard, Shane Fernandez,

Jeff Bonds, Debbie Wilson, Sharmien Watkins, Bob LaBass,

Lin Patterson, Kerri Zimmerman, and Jennifer Patterson.

We appreciate our Trustees and the work they do for Aim High Academy!

 



Announcement: We Will Be Moving!!!

Aim High will have a new home as of September 1, 2013!

 

We have outgrown our present facility and are so excited at this wonderful opportunity.

 

4728 Charles Page Boulevard, Tulsa, Oklahoma

We will have so much more space in which

to serve our students!

 

Here's a sneak peek inside (note: much work to be done):

With chairs and sound booth removed, this will be our main gym!
 

Tutoring Room

Hallway (isn't this just perfect for us?)



One of two preschool gyms

Mentoring Room

Work has already begun to get this new home
ready for us to move in.

God has truly blessed us with this new space.
We are very thankful for His goodness and grace.

As our Executive Director said:
"May we be the hands and feet of Jesus
to all we get to serve in our new home!
It's All for God!"

Our heart is to serve children and youth in N Tulsa.
Our program began at the John 3:16 Family and Youth Center
and then we moved to the North Pointe Center at Pine and Peoria where we really began to grow.
We searched North Tulsa high and low for a building which would meet our needs for student growth
and the unique requirements a building must have to accommodate gymnastics equipment.
God provided us with a building which was further west than we wanted but it allowed us to grow even more.
Now we are moving into a facility right by the location we have been the past 3 years.
It is a true miracle and there is no doubt that we are where God wants us.
We maintain an enrollment policy that 70% of the children we serve must reside in North Tulsa zip codes.
So we are serving North Tulsa children even though we are a little further west in location.
We do hope to build in North Tulsa someday.


 



 

 

 

 

Drum Roll...Please!

 

Aim High Academy

is now providing gymnastics

to 200 urban children each week!

 

Our 200th student, My'Onni,

enrolled on Monday, September 24th.

 

We are blessed with precious children.

 

Glory to God!

 

The Heavens Declare

Spectacular display of God's creativity and goodness

on the way back to Tulsa

from a team practice in Stillwater last week.

Facebook Posts

On November 22, 2011, a Tulsa Public Schools teacher posted on Facebook:

"One of the students was telling her other little friends today

how much she likes gymnastics at Aim High and that they should start going too.

Thank you for doing what you do!"

On November 16, 2011, a mom posted: "I think I'm in big trouble my 2 yr old not only

talks about gymnastics all the time but tonight she won't take off her gymnastics leo,

and she didn't even have a practice tonight, lol!!! Love her!"