On November 13th 2020, the doors to ACPR gymnastics were closed due to a decision made to suspend Harford County Parks and Recreation and close government buildings. We are now half way through January with no reopening date in sight.

The competitive gymnastics program at ACPR consists of around 100 competitive gymnasts from pre-team levels up to level 10- many of whom were relying on this program to prepare for college gymnastics and scholarships. The program also supports 700 recreational gymnasts

These gymnasts spend 3-6 days a week in the gym, which is 10-20+ hours/week.

When the decision was made to close the building, ACPR gymnastics had no reports of positive cases among gymnasts or coaches. They followed strict protocols and CDC guildlines like decreased capacity, social distancing, mask wearing, and disinfection/sanitization between practices and events. The coaches did an exceptional job of keeping gymnasts and staff safe.

As of this time, we are the ONLY gymnastics facility closed in the entire state of Maryland!

Unlike other sports, gymnastics cannot be properly done outside of the gym, and is also not a sport that can be easily moved to another facility.

In order to prevent injury and keep strength, the girls need to be practicing regularly on equipment. This means, we have been traveling outside of Harford County to use various other gyms to keep our girls strong and continue training. This poses a larger risk as we are traveling outside of the county regularly and then returning.

The girls are traveling over an hour to outside counties for each practice whenever these other gyms can graciously open their doors to ACPR. While we appreciate the empathy these gyms have provided, this schedule hinders our gymnasts as they have no consistency in their training and also very decreased hours in the gym, and will destroy the ACPR program which has been a pillar in the Harford County community for decades.

Please consider signing this petition to get these girls back where they belong, in their own gym! Help bring ACPR back home. These gymnasts have all worked so hard and have had so many things taken from them, they deserve to be training on their own equipment like every other gymnast in Maryland is able to do!