About Us
Get to know more about who we are and why we do what we do.
They say out of tragedy comes triumph, you have to be willing to create it though. In 2008, 15 years ago, my Mom died of stomach cancer. She was only 68 and I was just shy of 35. At the time, I was 100 lbs overweight, in a job I hated, defending corporate giants in lawsuits brought on primarily by their own inequities, oh and I was in debt too, not loving my life. My Mom always pressed me to do this or that to improve some aspect, what seemed like her perpetual nagging, was her commitment for me to be happy and to somehow help me find access to that happiness. She was always my champion, and then, she died.
I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child, because losing my mom is the most heart-wrenching experience I’ve had to date. I would sob cursing her for leaving me with my Dad and brother, seemingly lost, unhelpful souls at the time. I would then apologize and plead through tears because I couldn’t believe I had ever cried about anything ever before in my life! Lost romances, betrayals by friends, squabbles with family, all were nothing…just drama relative to the simple life I’d lived to date. As the haze started to lift, I recognized that I had two choices. Stay the same, or be the change. To follow this heartache to ruin, or reign its power in to be the catalyst that transforms me and my life. As you may guess, I chose the latter.
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The first tasks I focussed on were getting my health in check and my debt in control. I’ll bore you of the details, but I sought out professionals to help me budget both my food and exercise as well as my pennies. Over the next two years, I lost 90 lbs and paid down close to $75,000.00 in debt. I’m still astounded and often look back for inspiration as I scale the next mountain. I still went to that job from 8-8 most days. I made it bearable by diving into Ironman training, morning practices obviously, playing a little 30+ soccer and supplementing training with CrossFit. At the time, there were five CrossFit gyms in NY. I traveled to Brooklyn to train...Brooklyn. Although I could hold my own on the soccer field and wasn’t dead last in triathlon training, CrossFit is what made me soar.
There was something about slamming the barbell down from a successful clean, or ringing the bell at the top of the ropes that gave me power, made me feel unstoppable. Workouts for time, me against the clock and the challenge to do these crazy things gave me a new outlet, a new lease on life, a new focus. I didn’t have to be the best to leave knowing I had kicked ass. Imagine the impact on kids, who weren’t yet soured on life or compartmentalizing their successes? This could really alter their state of being!
Soon after I shook things up in my own life, my job was nice enough to let me go. Yep, fired...and I didn’t give a crap. I spent the summer between Brooklyn, where I had finally moved and my families tiny bungalow by the sea on the Jersey Shore. Grateful for the time I spent, considering Sandy destroyed our home and my Dad just didn’t want to rebuild. By then I had gotten involved coaching kids and adults and growing a kids program at my gym. Now with more time on my hands, I peddled my wares to a few other local gyms to pilot more programs. Which is how we ended up in Long Island City. A growing community and a friend that believed in what I was doing made for a great pair!
Want to join the fun?
Check out our programs
Find out all about the programs we run and see what fits best for you!
Gantry Kids & Teens at first simply provided fitness classes to kids in the surrounding area. Kids who didn’t always like the intensity of team sports, but were pretty active nonetheless. As word spread through the neighboorhood and the program grew, that is where my focus remained. The kids from Brooklyn started coming to LIC and the rest they say is history.
At first, our tagline was “Building a Lifetime of Fitness”, because after all, wasn't that what we were doing? Developing the taste for and enjoyment of movement and seeing what our bodies could do and understanding how important and limitless we are. Then it because clear, that Gantry Kids & Teens was more than that. Growing up the child of an elementary school teacher and a child psychologist, the goal of Gantry Kids & Teens was really to provide kids with a safe, fun place to develop important life skills, like leadership and teamwork and kindness and to build self-esteem, all through fitness.
See when you come to class or our camps, we are a team, but it’s you against you in the workouts. The focus is to take you where you are right now, in every aspect of your life, and reach toward that limitless potential inside of you, one box jump at a time.
Since our inception, we’ve grown to provide strength and conditioning to sports teams, group classes for every age and fitness level, one-on-one training for teens, school year and summer camps - feeding the mind and body, Saturday night shenanigans to give parents date night possibilities, field trips and of course birthday party celebrations!
The most rewarding moments are sometimes when kids leave us. They were elected student government president, or made the soccer team after never having tried out for anything in their life! We take a little credit in being the catalyst to help them be the change in their own lives and know themselves as someone and something different!
Our success stories range from students attending Ivy Leagues, state champion debaters, starting soccer goalies - who used to sit on the bench, world-class jump ropers (at least we think so) and rope swingers, children thriving during the upheaval of divorce or loss, those that show kindness to our community and mother earth and lately, to the little girl who transversed across the monkey bars with no problem after making it her goal 6 months earlier. These are the moments that shine for us and the reason we know we are “Building Tomorrow’s Leaders Today”!
I was postulating to my dad, tooting my own horn if you will, about what I was teaching a three and a half-year-old one day. He interrupted my boasting and at his wise 82 years said, “Michele, it isn’t always what you are teaching a child that matters. It’s the fact that you are spending time with them that makes them feel important and that they matter in the world.” Wow, thanks Dad for reminding me. Come spend time with us, we’d love to have you, and so would the world.