Gymnasts Host Bruin Pen Pals From Area Schools
March 12, 2002 | Gymnastics
March 3, 2002
On Sunday, March 3, the UCLA gymnastics team hosted children from several classrooms at the 25th Annual UCLA Invitational. During the course of the season, team members exchanged letters with children from 15 different classrooms in the greater Los Angeles area. All Pen Pals were invited to join the Bruins for the final home meet of the season when they faced off against the Michigan Wolverines, the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the CS Fullerton Titans. They joined the 3350 plus fans in Pauley Pavilion to cheer the Bruins to a new school record team total of 198.35. The day culminated with pictures, autographs and a meet and greet session outside of Pauley Pavilion.
Head Coach Valorie Kondos-Field was especially enthused to see the young fans in attendance and offered these words at the end of the meet, "I would like to thank all of the Bruin Pen Pals who joined us today. I am very happy that all of you were able to join us today. Keep working hard and you can do anything you set your mind to."
While meeting and taking pictures with her Pen Pals, sophomore Jamie Dantzscher commented, "I want to be an elementary school teacher so this is a really great opportunity to meet with these children. I have enjoyed writing to them and look forward to reading their letters." Dantzscher was met with a series of cheers from her Pen Pals as she earned an amazing three perfect 10.0 scores on her way to achieving a career-high all-around score of 39.9.
The Bruin Pen Pal program was initiated five years ago and various teams have taken advantage of this opportunity to reach out into the community. The program objectives were created to assist children by improving their writing skills, developing relationships with older people whom they may consider role models, and establishing an avenue to build their self-esteem.
