Letter to the editor: Gaisers influential in children's lives

I think it is timely to tell you of the debt I owe Bigfork’s Cathy Gaiser and Bud Gaiser. I would also like to give your readers some idea of the esteem in which they are held here from their 10 years in Australia.

About 23 years ago I was a single mother with an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old. The younger child was a nervous, anxious little boy who desperately wanted to please everyone. My children showed an aptitude for gymnastics so I enrolled them in the Gaiser’s gymnastics program. James attended the program for six years, his older sister eight. Those years were pivotal for them. Cathy and Bud were so influential that I very willingly and proudly say they co-parented my children.

Their many invaluable lessons included the belief that persistence and tenacity, more than anything else, bring success. Another was that you really only ever compete with yourself because we all have different talents and starting points. My children developed deep and genuine self-confidence in their values, ideals and dreams, and importantly, humility in their achievements. I could cite so many examples of how Cathy and Bud achieved this, but suffice to say it was a wonderfully happy club with content, very kind and self-disciplined kids. Most of them would now unhesitatingly attribute their considerable achievements to what the Gaisers taught them via gymnastics. I used to think that Cathy and Bud were extraordinary with kids because they were American. I had assumed that was the way all Americans valued and understood the rearing of children.

Marie Nunan

Victoria, Australia