Anderson Needs Your Help - Eastern Championship

We have fantastic news - Anderson qualified to the 2023 Eastern National Championship in Fort Lauderdale Florida at the end of April. Unfortunately, in order to go he desperately needs your help. More on that below, but first a note and update from Andy.

Dear Family and Friends,

I love my sport and have not regretted a single day of the last nine years I have given to it. I have learned so many things besides the actual sport. Things like dedication, perseverance, commitment and loyalty. I know how to overcome fear, manage my perfectionism, how to bounce back after failure and how to perform under pressure. My self confidence and self esteem is strong.

There is no off season in this sport. We train 51 weeks per year to maintain and work on new skills for what is really six sports in one. I have had to pass on time with friends, school extracurricular events, birthday parties, movies, trips to amusement parks and so many other activities over the years. We don’t take vacations except maybe a day or so around a travel meet. It’s also very expensive on my family for tuition, fees, uniforms, required fundraising, gas and mileage for a gym over an hour away for 25-30 hours of training per week and just plain their time.

Even with the time invested in gymnastics I still love and excel in school. I have skipped a grade and take math an additional two grades above grade. I qualified to take the PSAT at age 10 and the SAT at age 11 for the first time. I qualified for and have taken courses through John’s Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. I maintain a 4.0 unweighted GPA with all honors courses. This year I received the Pennsylvania All American award for the second time and also the USA Gymnastics All American award.

A couple of weeks ago I struggled through my State Championship after damaging a High Bar grip. At the end of that competition I thought my season was over. I could have gone back to the gym and sulked for a couple of months until summer training, and I maybe wanted to because I was disappointed, but I got back to work. I earned a new advanced still ring skill and finally got two new pommel horse skills I have been struggling with for over a year. I was able to compete all of these new skills two weeks later when I was unexpectedly given the chance to compete at the Regional Championship.

I was so happy to have a chance to redeem myself and actually experienced a lot of success. I am so happy I proved I was worth being given that chance. I medaled for the first time ever (8 seasons) in an event at a regional championship - floor. I went six for six meaning and I didn’t fall on any event. I competed all three new skills for the first time and had the highest all around score of my career. My score easily qualified me in the regional allotment for Eastern National Championship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in a few weeks. I was surprised to finish so high in the allotment as my first season in Level 9. I am the youngest age allowed to compete at that level. In the allotment for Nationals all boys up to age 18 qualify top down by score regardless of age, size, strength or experience at the level.

I am so excited and really want to go, but know that as of right now I won’t be able to due to the cost. I am hoping now that I earned my chance that some of you will consider donating to help me get there. Even if you consider donating the cost of a movie or trip to an amusement park that I have given up over the years to invest in what I love to do that would be awesome.

Thank you and Love,

Anderson

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Now the nitty gritty from Dawn and Rick. Here is what we are looking at expenses in the next two weeks. The meet is 4/28/2023 so closing in fast.

Airfare

Hotel or Air BnB

Rental car

Gas

Boarding for Willow

Meals

Admission / Parking

Uniform

Souvenir Pictures and/or meet Sweatshirt if we can find a way to get in budget

Incidentals and Unknowns

If he can’t earn enough for arirfare and kennel for Willow it is possible we could drive again to try to save money, but would still like to rent a car this time and need dog day care down there for Willow on meet day.

Aside from the fact that it is just plain expensive we have had many things impact our personal ability to accomplish this for him without help. Including a prior trip to FL for meet in February. That trip took any margin we had in cash and credit cards to make that happen for him and we did it because we didn’t know if he would qualify for Nationals. Quite frankly we thought it was unlikely as the first year and young in this level. We drove down and came right back up doing nothing extra except a major car repair while we were down there. Rick works two jobs and has no paid time off yet from either, so him being off without pay will affect our ability to pay Anderson’s tuition and fees for the following month. Moving expenses and repairs to our home only six months ago has also set back our available resources.

I am in tears as I type this with Anderson knowing we are letting him down. We hate to ask for help, but we need to. We know so many people love Anderson and his commitment to the sport so we hope hearing him talk about it that you will find it in your heart to help him make it to his Eastern National Championship.

Love,

Rick and Dawn Card