August 2020 Zipline

Since closing our doors on March 13th, we have received an unprecedented amount of support from the AcroSports community! Many thanks to all of you who have given donations of both cash and existing class credit; this has made a significant impact on our ability to reopen, as well as our continued viability as a business overall.

Thank You

Since closing our doors on March 13th, we have received an unprecedented amount of support from the AcroSports community!   Many thanks to all of you who have given donations of both cash and existing class credit; this has made a significant impact on our ability to reopen, as well as our continued viability as a business overall.  

While the PPP loan was also a boon to AcroSports, unfortunately its impact was somewhat limited, in that it was restricted both in terms of shelf-life and the types of expenses it would cover.   Taking all PPP-related income & expenses out of the equation, as of the end of July, AcroSports is nearing the half-million dollar mark of expenses & liabilities incurred without any corresponding income.  Please see the “Donate” page of our website for details, and if you are in a position to support AcroSports in any way, we would greatly appreciate it!

Remember that donating any standing credit you may have on file is fantastically helpful!  Donating credit is a tax-deductible donation that does not require you to actually expend any cash, so it’s sort of a win-win.  Please email in**@ac********.org if you would like to offer your credit as a donation.

Thank you again to our entire community, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.  

Updates From the Executive Director

AcroSports has always been a major advocate for safety in the programs we offer to the community, and we have chosen to use this down time to make upgrades to our facility that will further support that focus.  All of the renovations we’ve completed in the gym during this closure are real “Wow Factor” items that you will certainly notice right away upon returning to AcroSports! 

Thanks to our receipt of a PPP loan in April, we were able to hire a team of riggers to complete a project we had initially planned to tackle next year – the installation of a new aerial truss (please note only the riggers’ payroll was covered by the loan!).  This truss was needed to replace the existing beam clamps, which were putting undue stress on the building steel.  This project also includes installation of new curtain tracks and blackout drapes for the west wall windows above the main floor, and a trapeze above the pit, so students can train advanced tricks more safely.  

As I write this, a crew of painters is finishing up a complete repainting of the main gym walls and upstairs bleachers. The photo below shows a panoramic view of the main floor once it had been cleared away and scaffolding erected in preparation for the painting.  Once the paint is dry, the riggers will return for the final phase of hanging the new blackout curtains, and the transformation will be complete!

Our goal is to have the gym updated and prepared to resume as many program offerings as soon as is safely possible. As always, the health and well-being of our staff and community are our highest priority.

Thank you for your support and understanding as we thoughtfully approach reopening AcroSports.  Please stay safe and take care of yourselves, your families and your loved ones. Keep your head up, stay positive and keep moving, I know that we’re going to get through this.

Dorrie Huntington

AcroSports Founder & Executive Director

AcroSports Reopening Date

I hope all our Acro family and friends are doing as well as can be expected during this wildly unpredictable time!  Here at AcroSports, we are continually wondering how it can be that Friday, March 13th – the day we officially closed programming – simultaneously seems like only yesterday, and also a vast eternity ago.  

I suppose that a big part of why the closure date feels so very long ago at times is because ever since that day, AcroSports Executive Director, Dorrie Huntington and I have essentially been playing a game for which the rules keep surreptitiously changing.   As soon as we make one decision, another game piece is relocated or disappears altogether, and we have to pivot accordingly.  Fortunately, despite these challenges, AcroSports has managed to tackle some major accomplishments during the closure (which Dorrie elaborates upon elsewhere in this newsletter).  However one major concern still partially eludes us; specifically – when can we reopen? 

A few months ago, London Breed determined an “Ok to reopen” date for gyms like ours of August 15th.  Shortly after this date was announced, surveys sent to AcroSports students & families returned responses that overwhelmingly indicated the bulk of our community would NOT feel safe returning to the gym that soon, regardless of the Mayor’s approved timeline.  AcroSports’ Board of Directors is equally cautious, and thus recently decided on a tentative reopen date of October 1st.  Families will undoubtedly have a lot of schedule-organizing to do once school is back in session, so an October 1st resumption date of AcroSports classes feels like a comfortable target.  This date allows for both a safe return to the gym, and also gives our families a chance to adjust to their new routines before turning their attention toward extracurricular activities.

Please let me underscore here that, as of this writing, this October 1st resumption date is still TENTATIVE.  As many of you are probably aware, COVID-19 infection rates have not dropped or even plateaued since Mayor Breed set the August 15th reopen date. Thus there is a possibility that this date could be pushed to later in the year, in which case, we would most likely postpone AcroSports’ reopening as well. “Safety First!” has always been our motto, and there is certainly no need to stray from that philosophy now. We will be sure to keep everyone posted as updates to the reopening timeline occur.

Please also note that when AcroSports programming resumes, class offerings and availability will of course be limited, due to the need for appropriate social distancing within the facility.  For more information about the COVID-related precautions we will be taking, please see Dorrie’s update on our website.

In the meantime, lay low and stay safe!  We are thinking of you and are looking forward to having our community restored to a working whole.

Jenee Gill

AcroSports Finance Manager

PPP Loan Report

AcroSports was fortunate to receive a PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loan in mid-April.  A component of the CARES Act passed by Congress, the PPP loans are fully “forgivable,” as long as their expenditure falls within certain parameters, with the emphasis being to employ as many people as possible, thus lessening the burden of the growing rolls of people on Unemployment.  Your tax dollars at work!

The real challenge with this funding was to find ways to keep our staff employed, as fully as possible, despite not offering any of our regular programming. Quite a predicament!  Luckily we are never short on creative ideas around here, and got moving immediately on a number of special projects.

Along with paying riggers to install a new truss, as noted in Dorrie’s update, we also used our PPP funds to finish an overhaul of our website, and launch a short-term series of online AcroSports classes.  While we have now had to put the live classes on hold (more about that below), a number of short videos and other content were created during our loan period that will continue to be a regular part of AcroSports’ presence on social media.

Given that we were part of the very first round of PPP recipients, however, we intentionally used up our loan quite quickly.  The initial stipulation had been that these loans needed to be expended within 8 weeks, and we did a fantastic job of doing just that.  Congress did not approve the extension of the deadline from 8 to 24 weeks until early June, at which point we were already near the end of our planned spending trajectory.  The free online classes many of our students enjoyed during the time of our loan unfortunately had to be suspended once our PPP funds ran out in June; we attempted a “pay as you go” model for a few weeks beyond that point, but ultimately decided to refocus our limited remaining resources on plans for reopening.

Thanks to all our reps in Congress who made the CARES act possible!  The PPP loan we received was really a win-win, allowing us to employ some of our amazing staff for another two months, while simultaneously facilitating vital projects we may not have been able to complete otherwise.