2012 Winter Newsletter

Avery Downing is a 13 year old Level 9 competitive gymnast at River City Gymnastics in Bartlett, TN. On January 10, 2012, she fell while practicing on the uneven bars and suffered a spinal cord injury. On January 11, she went into surgery and found that the spinal cord was not severed; however, she broke her back at T11 and T12 which has left her paralyzed from the waist down. She is currently at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and will be transported to Sheppard's Center in Atlanta.

This is a life changing injury, so there has been an “Avery Downing Fund” set-up for her and for those who wish to donate. The fund has been set-up at SunTrust Bank, so you may walk into any branch or make checks payable to the Avery Downing Fund. If you need to mail in a donation, send the check to: SunTrust Bank, Attn: Victoria Whigham, 999 South Shady Grove Road, Memphis, TN 38120.

River City Gymnastics has created “Team Avery” merchandise to help raise money for the Downing Family. If your club would like purchase any merchandise to help the Downing Family, please visit River City Gymnastics and click on the Team Avery link, which will have an order form to fill out. Please have the club take orders for the merchandise and send one club check with the order form to: TEAM AVERY, 7995 Stage Hills Blvd. Bartlett, TN 38133.

If you would like to see updates on how Avery is doing, you can follow her on Caring Bridge.