Gymnastic club to vault to new heights with building expansion

Omni Gymnastic Centre manager Adrian McMillan says the 50-year-old pommel horse is one of many things the club is fundraising to replace. Photo / Warren Buckland

In 2020, Napier’s Omni Gymnastics Centre decided it needed to expand its facility if it wanted to accommodate the growing interest in the sport.

However, when Covid-19 hit, the club went from looking to the future to just trying to keep afloat.

Making it through the pandemic Omni Gymnastics Centre thought it was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel at the start of this year, and was getting ready to launch a fundraiser when Cyclone Gabrielle hit and its plans came tumbling down.

Omni centre manager Adrian McMillan now has his fingers crossed hoping it will be the third time lucky for their expansion fundraiser and they can start to get things off the ground.

Omni has been around for 40-odd years and moved into its current facility because it outgrew the old one, and now the gymnastic club is doing that again.

There are more than 820 members, 26 paid coaches and one volunteer coach. If that wasn’t a big enough number the gym already services a number of schools and early childhood centres within the community, which brings in more than 4000 children each year.

Even after extending the gymnastics programme to include Sundays, the centre still has a waiting list of 258 children, which will continue to grow if the facility is not made bigger.

McMillan said, “Our facility and membership is starting to burst at the seams and if we want to increase member numbers and offer more programmes then we need to expand.”

The gymnastics club wants to focus fundraising in two areas, the first being the replacement of existing equipment to ensure Omni can offer sanctioned equipment to hold competitions under the Gymnastics New Zealand umbrella and ensure ongoing safety.

The second and biggest goal is fundraising for is a building extension, which McMillan said the gym will need a suitable partner to help with the club’s dream of a 648 square metre extension to the current facility.

When asked how long it would take to replace equipment and build the extension, McMillan said, “It really depends on money and fundraising, if the money slowly trickles in it could take 10 years or if it starts to come in fast it could take 18 months, so being hopeful and realistic I am estimating the extension could be completed in roughly five years.”

To replace the old equipment, Omni has set a goal of $30,000 which will enable the purchase of a Spieth vaulting table and a new pommel horse.

The senior gymnasts are also rolling up their sleeves to organise a raffle to help fundraise for the new gym equipment they need.

So far the group has had one cord of gum firewood for next year’s winter donated to the raffle but is still looking for more raffle donations that will help get some more interest in their fundraiser.

As for the building extension, Napier City Council has given Omni preliminary consent to extend in accordance with its land lease and now is looking for a possible interested partner that would like to come on board as a major sponsor.

McMillan explained the facility needs to expand to allow more people to take part in the sport of gymnastics.

He added the expansion is important for the Napier community because, “it’s a great foundational sport, and is about getting kids and adults active and introducing them to what I think is a great sport”.

If you are interested in donating a raffle prize or want to look into becoming a sponsor of the facility expansion, email Adrian McMillan at centremanager@omnigymnastics.co.nz

To keep updated of the fundraising follow the Omni Gymnastics Centre on Facebook.