Tiny Gym - Fund Our LGBTQ-owned Space & Programs!

WHAT IS TINY GYM?

My wife Lara Americo and I started Tiny Gym with one purpose: To provide a safe space for queer people and allies to freely and joyfully move their bodies.

Our motto: We’re a tiny, trans-owned, underground gym in between Stonewall Inn and NYPD #6. We’re the living embodiment of what Stonewall originally stood for: Trans and queer people improving their health and living long, joyful lives. We believe “ab goals” are unsustainable and diet culture is toxic. We believe moving your body is the goal of any exercise. All fitness should be performance-based and free of needless, binary gender standards. We need to stop punishing our bodies for doing its job.

WHY DOES TINY GYM NEED A GOFUNDME?

Lara and I are looking to launch Tiny Gym’s afternoon program so we can reach more grown-ups and kids who want to have a safe, fun space to work out. Like many small businesses, we’re feeling the growing pains of expanding our offerings while spreading the word to new and potential gym members. We’re trying to keep the West Village weird, and to continue being a local, affordable alternative to corporate big box gyms.

We’re asking our friends and connections for support as we take Tiny Gym to the next level: afternoon programs, online offerings and more teachers/trainers.

WHERE THE FUNDS GO

With your generous donation, Tiny Gym will be able to continue operating day to day while building our new programs. As with many small businesses right now, we’re riding the waves of the current economy as well as COVID-19, which is still very much around.

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Lara had to stop training clients altogether, resuming only when the CDC guidelines allowed for outdoor, masked activities. At the end of 2021, we battled with the brutal wave of the first Omnicron variant for the winter months, traditionally the most popular months for gyms.

At the end of May 2022, Lara, our toddler and I had COVID, effectively closing the gym until the end of our quarantine time and a few days longer to be safe. This left us scrambling to put together our Pride programming for June 2022, reducing our potential to reach out to new gym members and the community overall. We were able to put together Baby Disco, but we wanted to make a bigger impact for Pride Month.

Since that time, inflation and the rising costs of doing business have skyrocketed. While we have incredible afternoon programming ready to debut, we are doing a daily balancing act of day-to-day operations and growing for the future.

We've finally reached a point in our business where we need to directly and respectfully ask our community for support as we enter our Fall/Winter season this year. We need funding at this crucial tipping point in our business. We want to offer more one-on-one training as well as group classes. In order to do that, we need to hire new trainers, buy supplies for each class (for grown-ups and kids alike) and make the necessary renovations to our space, including our restroom and workout area.

You’re already a part of our Tiny Gym community whether you train here, go to one of our future afternoon classes, or are a friend living somewhere else in the world.

Thank you for loving Lara and me and our family.

Keep the only trans, queer, and veteran-owned business in the West Village alive.

Keep Tiny Gym running in the neighborhood where Pride began.

Thanks again!!

With love,

Joanne + Lara + our toddler associate