GYMNASTICS : $25,000 Olympic Grant Leaves Them Flipping Over Gym-on-Wheels

Somewhere, possibly in your neighborhood, a bar on wheels is looking to serve your children. It’s goal is to teach Valley youths how to get downright euphoric--about gymnastics.

The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, the organization that distributes the profits from the 1984 Olympic Games, has awarded $25,000 to Gymnastics Olympica USA, a nonprofit organization in Van Nuys that teaches children the correct way to pass a parallel bar exam.

In addition to the permanent facility, the group takes a mobile trailer to elementary schools. The AAF award will be used to expand the gym-on-wheels.

“Remember when the Olympics came and all of the dance clubs became gymnastics clubs?” program spokesman Lloyd Wiltfong said. “After all of the injuries people suffered, most of them are back to being dance clubs again. The mobile facility helps us take gymnastics to the kids, and teach them the right way to do it.”

The mobile trailer features a set of parallel bars, tumbling mats, a balance beam and other utility equipment to teach children aged 2 to 14 the right way to warm up and execute basic gymnastic exercises.

The allocation will allow the mobile program to service more schools. Currently, the trailer--and 2 to 4 instructors--makes as many as five trips daily to schools in the Valley area.

“We’ve got several on our waiting list already,” Wiltfong said.

The program has been successful in garnering the interest of the participants. Many of the group’s best gymnasts did back flips over the sport after a visit from Wiltfong’s welcome wagon.

“It’s been a great satellite program to get kids initially interested,” he said.