Wendy Hilliard, founder of the Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation (WHGF), was honored last Saturday by the NAACP Mid-Manhattan Branch. She was joined by members of her staff as well as three athletes—ZaQuae Carter, BJ Mensah, and Ty-La Morris—who are members of the USA Gymnastics Senior National Team and will be competing in Pamplona, Spain, this November.
“It was gratifying for me to have my staff with me and the kids; it was everybody together,” said Hilliard. “It was really fun that the kids performed. That’s what we do.”
Hilliard was honored for her nearly three decades of commitment to empowering the lives of young people by providing low-cost and free gymnastics programming to youth in Harlem. To be honored by a renowned civil rights organization is deeply meaningful. “What the NAACP stands for is to make sure everyone has the opportunity, and that’s what the WHGF stands for,” she said. “It gives people opportunity and access to gymnastics and better health.”
Mensah, 20, will compete at the Senior World Championships, and Carter and Morris, both 18, will compete at the World Age Group Championships. There was not sufficient space at the NAACP event for them to show all their moves, but they did backflips. “They do a standing backflip altogether, and everybody gets what they do,” Hilliard said.
Morris competes in trampoline and tumbling. This fall, she is focused on training and will enroll at Rutgers University for the spring semester. She was impressed by the accomplishments of the people at the NAACP event and excited to learn more about the organization.
“What it means to me is that even though people of color have been brought down for many years, we’ve still been able to rise above [that] and [are] able to help our people to accomplish what they want to do,” said Morris, who will continue training and competing while in college.
Last week, an episode of “Celebrity Family Feud” aired in which Olympic Champion Gymnast Jordan Chiles announced the WHGF as her charity. “It was amazing. She did that on her own; we didn’t ask her,” said Hilliard. “It really made us feel that we’re doing the work that we need to do, and we’re recognized by one of the top athletes in the world and the NAACP. It was a very gratifying week to know the impact this work is having.”