“When we first started we were just a gymnastics gym. Then we decided to add our dance program,” said Nolby.
It’s turned into a busy place that serves about 2,000 kids every week. In addition to gymnastics and dance, they now have an academic preschool, cheerleading, theater, day camps, and ninja classes.
“As we started working with kids on a regular basis, we found that they needed more than just learning the athletic aspect of what we were doing; so we started teaching things like respect, and courage, and determination. About a year ago we developed a life skills whole program where we are very intentional about adding those things into all of our different programs,” said Nolby.
But, the growth the Jam Hops has seen through the years didn’t come without a struggle.
The company nearly went bankrupt in 2007-08 when enrollment dropped by over half with the recession. By 2009 Nolby had to stop paying herself a regular salary and her business partner went back to teaching school full-time.
Jam Hops paid its bills on time through it all, and the gratitude she felt toward her community, which had supported her in ways big and small, inspired Nolby to start “Jam Hops Gives Back” with donations and services to local organizations. Since starting the campaign in 2013, it has donated almost $64,000 and hundreds of birthday parties to local organizations to help in their fundraising efforts, and thousands of pounds of food and clothing to the local food shelf.
This work in the community, along with having a growing business with an increasing number of employees is a few of the reasons that Brenda was named Small Business Person of the Year.
“The award that I’m getting is Person of the Year, but for me, it’s not about me, it’s about my staff that is amazing. They’re the ones who are here every day, they work with our kids, they work with our customers, they’re at the front line; and I’m very much in the background. So I feel that this award is theirs more than it is mine,” said Nolby.
Brenda will be headed to Washington DC to collect her award, alongside winners from other states. There, one of the fifty state winners will be named National Small Business Person of the Year.
