GCH
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GCH
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April Gymnast of the Month Gabby
Gabby, one of the stars of the level Seven team here at the Gymnastic Center of Hershey, is an astounding combination of brains, beauty, grace, and athletic ability, who is just as comfortable in a Karate Gi (Tang Su Do discipline, red belt with white stripe) doing complicated kata’s, bone breaking jump kicks and twisting gut punches as in a leo doing double back handsprings on the beam. Also, heaven help the young man who might try to impress Gabby and try to make her think he’s smarter than she is. Good luck buddy….. During a recent family vacation to Italy (her Dad’s home country), Gabby didn’t just lie around the pool; she was actively enjoying her favorite school subject – Geography – studying the architecture, the archeological history of the area, their political parties, etc. Really immersing herself in the culture. Also, she didn’t hit the local equivalent of Ollie’s….not Gabby….she was busy shopping at fashion Super Stores: Giorgio Armani’s and Gianni Versace. She did indulge in investigating two of her favorite foods – Pasta Fagiole and Tiramisu. On the final day of their visit (July 4th) the guide took them to an American restaurant where the crowd sang the wonderful US standards “Star Spangled Banner, Take me out to the Ballgame and others”. “It was great, there we were in the heart of Florence, eating hot dogs, hamburgers and fries, singing American songs!” Also, Gabby recently exhibited her mental prowess in Science by winning her school’s science fair with her entry of “How Does Blockage of Auditory Signals Impact the Balance of A Gymnast?” She also participated in a special Science Fair with her entry at the prestigious Whittaker Center. To make it short, she tested 7 gymnasts with varying levels of blocking noises to their ears; from allowing all normal noise to keeping them in total dead silence and in between and having judges judge them for wiggles, bobbles, falls, etc. to see who performed worse – the ones who competed in total silence, the ones in normal noise level, or the ones who heard noise levels somewhere in the middle….(see the end of the interview for the answer). Of the entire Gymnastic event’s, I asked Gabby, why she liked the Floor above the others, “you can pick your own music, not just go through compulsory movements; the floor allows me the flexibility of putting movement to music – to express my personality to music.” Gabby has an interesting collection of pets including Luna, a 5 month old gerbil and Rascal, a scampering (read –into everything) miniature schnauzer. She has a dynamic mix of sisters and brothers as well including, Merideth – a college freshman, Aubrey – a High School Freshman and last, but not least, Anthony – who is in the fourth grade. It’s been a tough year for Gabby; she recently had her first real injury – a deep muscle bruise to her left leg. “I hope it heals soon, I’m icing it and treating it very tenderly. I have a shelf at home that, until recently, held all my trophies; but now I have to stick trophies on the floor – I’ve run out of shelf room. With Sectionals and States coming up I hope, with a healed leg that I will need a MUCH BIGGER SHELF. “ We hope so too Gabby, you are an amazing young woman – Brains, beauty, athlete, truly friendly, but with a “don’t mess with me” toughness acquired from the knowledge of years of martial arts training. GCH is proud to have you as our April Gymnast of the Month Ps. – answer to Gabby’s Science Fair: The worse gymnastic beam scores were made by those participants who had their ears stuffed with cotton balls that allowed that allowed just a little bit of background noise. Both gymnasts who were in total silence and were in normal noise levels performed better. |
