It is with heavy hearts that we announce that we have decided to close SenseAbility Gym as of June 30, 2018. This decision did not come easy to us, but after over five years of serving the families in our community, we have determined that now is the appropriate time for our doors to close.
When we first conceived the idea for SenseAbility Gym in early 2012, it was because as parents of young children with special needs, we saw that there were few resources in the community available to us for safe, judgment free play. Since then, we have seen incredible progress in terms of opportunities for inclusion and acceptance in the community at large for special needs families. We like to think that our success and influence played a part in the huge growth in resources and programming in our area. From sensory friendly movie times to Sensitive Santa to haircuts to Chuck E Cheese’s sensory friendly open times, the entire community is more aware of what special needs families need to feel included.
We believe whole-heartedly that here at SenseAbility Gym we have achieved our mission of providing children with special needs a safe, fun, indoor are where they can play and accommodate their sensory needs. But with the increased resources becoming available in the community, we have seen decreasing attendance on a yearly basis. As a non-profit organization, we will not be able to sustain the business with this downward trend. We are sad to see this trend, but at the same time, we view this as a positive. More opportunities and resources mean more choices for all of our families.
In addition, and just as importantly, our children are getting older, and it is time for us to focus on our families and their changing needs. As it has just been the two of us on a volunteer basis for these five plus years, we are looking forward to being able to spend more time with them.
After we close our doors on June 30, we will begin the process of the dissolution of SenseAbility Gym. As part of the dissolution, we will transfer our remaining assets to another local non-profit with a similar mission to ours. We will communicate more details as we progress throughout he steps of this process.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many, many families who have come through our doors over the past 5 years. So many of you have become our good friends; we are so thankful that you have come into our lives. We would also like to thank our donors and grantors who have generously supported us; many since the beginning when we were just a concept. You believed in us and helped us raise almost $40,000 to build and open the gym. You supported us throughout our many campaigns and fundraisers to help keep our doors open. We pledge that our remaining funds will go to an organization that is committed to the special needs community as much as we are.
We would also like to thank everyone who has helped us in so many ways over our journey: Our class instructors, board members, volunteers and countless community members who provided their advice, resources and expertise. Without all of you, we would have never made SenseAbility Gym what it is today.
Finally, we want to thank our husbands, Tim and Mike, who supported us every step of the way and made many sacrifices so we could pursue our dream.
Over the next several weeks, we will communicate our plans for our closing date, including information for families who hold unused passes or credits. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us any time. We do plan to keep a presence on social media for the foreseeable future so families can stay connected and share information and resources.
Thank you again for all you have done to enrich our lives over the past 5 years. We will be forever grateful.
