WORDS BY ERICA NEWTON, MYFIRSTGYM CO-FOUNDER
As an ex-pat American living in Australia, holiday season traditions here are pretty wild. For example, on Christmas Day, we head down to our local surf club, and along with a bunch of other Nipper families, dig around in the sand for little Christmas puddings and bags of candy a sun-safe Surfy Santa has left us. Sweating in my swimmers, covered in sand, holding a plastic-covered pudding was NOT on my festive vision board… but then, I never thought I’d be the co-founder of a children’s gym either!?
One tradition that remains the same is the reflection of what has been and all the exciting things to come around January 1st. For Dan and I, 2025 has been another year of growth and development within our amazing MyFirstGym community.
This year we:
- opened a new MyFirstGym in Mitchell- the first in the ACT.
- went international, with a MyFirstGym established in the Cayman Islands.
- welcomed over 8,700 through the doors of over 16 MyFirstGym branches.
- inspired movement in 60+ different classes.
- held over 50,000 classes across Australia.
- cartwheeled into the future with the creation of the MyFirstGym App.
More importantly however, we can see MyFirstGym making a real difference to kids walking (sometimes parkour-ing) through our branch doors. Parents have a safe and convenient way to get their kids moving. Communities continue to grow around each MyFirstGym. Movement, health and wellbeing for our children remains at the forefront of everything we do.
I am filled with so much gratitude and love for each and every child, family, coach and staff member involved with MyFirstGym. Thank you for yet another incredible year! From our family to yours: may 2026 be a year of peace, love and lots and lots of wonderful movement.