When Lift For Life Gym opened in a small storefront in 1988, no one dreamed it would grow into the organization it is today. What started as a small weightlifting gym just west of downtown, open a couple of days a week for a handful of kids, has burgeoned into a free year-round after-school center. Open five evenings a week, LFL Gym serves hundreds of children ages 8 to 18 with athletic activities, a computer lab, tutoring, cooking classes and evening meals.
Success often breeds success – in 2000 we opened Lift For Life Academy, the first independent charter middle school in the City of St. Louis. Our Academy, sponsored by Southeast Missouri State University, provides a middle school education to 250 students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. And, beginning in Fall 2008, Lift For Life Academy will offer 9th grade as well. We will add a grade each year with the ultimate goal to be a 6th – 12th grade middle and high school by Fall 2011.
Both Lift for Life Gym and Lift For Life Academy are dedicated to helping children who live in the City of St. Louis, to challenge themselves to be the best that they can be.
Lift For Life Gym has been part of Derrick Johnson's
life since he was 12 years old. Today, he he's still
at the Gym almost everyday, either coaching our young
weightlifters, or preparing for his upcoming trials to
gain a place on the 2008 US Olympic weightlifting
team.
