Ten years ago Tammy Lockridge drew plans for her dream gymnastics gym on the back of a Texas Roadhouse placemat. Today some 300 students jump, flip and tumble in a gym that is a living, loving and caring space.
Tammy, 44, owner of TK’s Gymnastics, stands in front of a wall-size mirror in the gym’s cheerleading room. “Do we want to win that first place trophy?” she says. “Heck yes! But it’s about more than that.”
On the mirror is written “4 days,” struck with a quick underline. Tammy’s Level 1 cheerleading team is making its last adjustments before an upcoming tournament in Lexington. Trophies line almost every available shelf in the building and more are piled on the floor. But Tammy tries to instill something beyond winning.
“Tammy has been special all her life,” says Geraldine Martin, Tammy’s mother. “She’s a hard worker. She’s very loving and kind.”
People around Tammy echo these sentiments: kind, caring, hands-on, helpful. These qualities guide her every move, from coaching to holding her annual toy drive, Arms of Love. Kidz 1st Bingo, a new business Tammy is opening downtown, will fund gymnastics scholarships and hold fundraisers for area youth sports.
Tammy’s caring attitude is embedded in the culture of the gym, says coach Erin Donaldson. “We make sure that they know they’re loved,” she says. “We treat them like they’re our own babies.”
Tammy started gymnastics when she was 9, after seeing Mary Lou Retton compete in the 1984 Olympics, “She was my idol when I was a little girl,” Tammy says. At 13, her former coach, Julie Gomes, offered her a job coaching at her gym in Mt. Sterling. When Julie retired in 2002, she convinced Tammy to start her own gym.
Running the gym isn’t all Tammy does for her community. On one afternoon she drove to Camargo to pick up Abbi Faulx, 9, the daughter of a neighbor, from school. Abbi’s mother was tied up taking care of family and needed an extra hand. On another morning, Tammy got up at 3:30 a.m. to drive her brother to a dental appointment in Lexington.
Tammy often stops by her parents’ house in Apperson Heights. She helps out her grandmother, Emily Moore, 95, as the two crack jokes.
“Are we gonna go out and get you a boyfriend today, mamaw?” she asks, as she applies her grandmother’s eyebrow makeup.
But for Tammy it’s just another day of doing what she loves. “I’m not special,” she says. “I put on my pants the same way as everybody else.”