|  SMART
BUSINESS
Molding young
minds and bodies
By KELLY A. GOFF
Photography LIZ GARZA-WILLIAMS
Who knew you could make
influencing the lives of children
into a business? Four
area women have done just
that by combining their passions and
experiences with their ambition and
enthusiasm for today’s youth.
They have been quietly, diligently
going about the business of helping
youngsters connect with their creativity,
build their bodies and acquire skills
that will serve them beyond their
youth. Like the children they teach,
these women have nurtured their businesses
from infancy to adulthood with
great success.
LORNA SPELLMAN
Boerne Gymnastics
Established 1991
BoerneGym.com
“Kids have to move to learn to move.”
It’s not every day you meet someone
who ran away and joined the circus. That’s
what Lorna Spellman, founder of Boerne
Gymnastics, did when she was 18. Well,
sort of — she didn’t run away (that was
for dramatic effect), but she did join
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® Circus
as an acrobat. “I competed in gymnastics
throughout high school, and they
[Ringling Bros.] offered me a position during
my first year of college,” recalls
Spellman. “I knew it was the opportunity
of a lifetime and took it.”
Naturally, everyone wonders what her
parents thought of her joining the circus.“My dad was really into acrobatics and
gymnastics. Growing up, we thought it
was normal to stand on your father’s
shoulders and do flips,” she laughs. “He
was responsible for helping get the first
gymnastics programs started in Indiana
where I grew up, so he was extremely
supportive about the circus.”
Spellman trained with a professional
stuntman in California before learning
the choreography and dance moves
from Ringling Bros. Her job was aerial
work, which included elephant riding,
web rope routines and 35-foot high
dives. She lived on the circus train, traveling
and performing throughout North
America. “It was the greatest experience
of my life at that time. I loved getting
to know the other performers, 80
percent of whom were not from the
United States. It was gratifying to work
with people who were seriously dedicated
to their craft,” she says. It was
also the perfect springboard for her
future endeavors.
LOVE COMES TO TOWN
Spellman’s circus days were short-lived,
however. She had met the man who was
to be her husband before she left for the
circus. After a year of performing and traveling,
she traded in her sequined leotard
for a coach’s uniform. She taught gymnastics
in California and had her own gymnastics
business in Louisiana for eight years
before moving to Texas.
“My daughter was 3 years old, and I
was pregnant with my son when we
moved to Boerne. The plan was for me
to retire from coaching and be a stay-at-home
mom,” remembers Spellman. “After my son was born, that lasted for
about six months. Then word got out
that I used to teach gymnastics, and
before I knew it, a friend talked me into
coaching her kids, and it just kept going
from there.” That was 24 years ago.
After a few years of part-time coaching,
Spellman knew she wanted to build
a full-time gymnastics business. “We
purchased land and started drawing up
plans for the gym. I can remember typing
out my business plan on a Commodore
64 computer,” she recalls with a laugh.
Spellman readily acknowledges that
you wouldn’t normally find a gym as
large as Boerne Gymnastics in a town
the size of Boerne. “When I started this,
I did it with the intention of being here a
long time. We looked around and saw
karate classes and dance studios that
would start and then go belly-up in a
few years. I didn’t want to disappoint the
kids who worked hard and got involved
or the parents who invested time and
money in uniforms, lessons and competitions,”
she says. “A lot of people
believed in what we were trying to do.
We were able to get a loan and build the
size and type of facility that has contributed
to our success.”
Although establishing and growing
the business often took away from family
time, she knows in the long run her
family sees the benefits and appreciates
the future potential it offers.
With a staff of 12, Spellman and her
coaches teach about 400 students yearround.
Boerne Gymnastics offers parents’
and tots’ classes; traditional boys’
and girls’ gymnastics, where children
learn Olympic events such as vault, bars,
beam and floor; and a circus arts program.
Spellman strives to stay on the
leading edge of the sport and started
offering acrobatic gymnastics five years
ago after luring two coaches from
Bulgaria, Radostina Lachkova and
Rumen Lachkov. The program has
matured, and four dedicated students
qualified for the USA Gymnastics
National Team and recently competed in
an international acrobatic gymnastic
competition called the Freedom Cup.
“Investing in professionals, ensuring
the environment and equipment are safe
and offering innovative programs like
our Gym Bus program have made all the
difference,” she says. “Parents will drive
a long way for a program that is good
for their kids.” In addition to locals,
Spellman has students from San
Antonio, Bandera and Comfort. The
steady growth and scores of former students
who are returning to sign up their
young children are a testament to the
quality of her program.
DON’T STAGNATE
Part of Spellman’s success is her willingness
to experiment and innovate.
Take the Gym Bus program her daughter
manages: “I thought it was important
for children to get exposure to gymnastics
early. So many kids go to day care
these days, and many parents don’t have
the extra time or energy to pick them up
and take them to classes. So we converted
a bus and put a minigym inside. We
drive to day cares and hold classes in the
bus; the kids love it!”
She also has plans to expand the
building to include a deep pit for higher-
level training and more workout
space so they can offer a family fitness
program. “Parents are always commenting
how they wish there was a
class for them so they didn’t just sit
there while their kids were having so
much fun. Family fitness will be a class
where kids can work on skills while parents
get a cardio and strength-training
workout,” says Spellman.
Her advice for someone looking into
business focused on children? “You must
do something you enjoy and honestly
believe in,” she advises. “It’s easy to
teach something and promote it when
you’ve seen the results firsthand. I
believe gymnastics is the foundation for
all other sports. Kids develop strength,
balance, flexibility and coordination with
gymnastics, but they also build self-confidence,
learn social skills, and when they
get really involved, they gain life skills like
self-discipline and time management
that translate into real achievement.”
 LISA LOPEZ MARES
Artworks: An Art Studio for Children
Established 1996
ArtworksArtStudio.com
“Teaching creativity for life.”
You hear Lisa Mares’ roundabout
story of how she came to establish
Artworks, and somehow the Grateful
Dead’s What a long, strange trip it’s been
springs to mind.
After finishing her bachelor’s degree
in philosophy at St. Mary’s University,
Mares considered pursuing a law career, “but I decided arguing with adults didn’t
appeal to my true self,” she says with a
laugh. Instead she started a catering
business in 1987 and three years later
established a neighborhood home child
care business before she had children.
PERSPECTIVE
“My friends thought I was crazy,” she
admits. “They asked why I would want
to take care of a bunch of kids all day
when I had a college degree, but I could
see there was a need for quality child
care in my neighborhood, and I loved
being with children.”
Since she also had an English degree
and had been a middle school teacher,
Mares decided art, reading and writing
would be a great summer experience. She
put catering on the back burner and billed
her program as art enrichment and also
tutored children ages 8-12 in reading and
writing. She transitioned to ages 2-5 that
fall and did every art project imaginable.
She used art to teach math, science, reading,
writing and social studies.
“The parents were amazed. Actually I
was amazed too!” laughs Mares. “I found
that project-based education taught selfdiscipline
and helped children with time
management. I was enjoying myself so
much I sold the catering company and did
art enrichment child care fulltime.”
In the summer of 1992, Lisa became
a nationally accredited family child care
provider. One of the projects for the
accreditation was to research a business
that could be started in the community
that would benefit children and parents.
She didn’t have to dig deep for the project
since parents had already been asking
her to do art parties.
“I advertised in Our Kids magazine for
mobile art parties, and the phone rang
off the wall,” she recalls. “My husband,
Steve, kept suggesting I start an art studio.
He went in search of a commercial
location and found the perfect space.
Honestly, I wasn’t convinced that I wanted
to start something like that at the
time, but he badgered me for an entire
month to check out the space. I finally
went to look at it so he would quit mentioning
it.” After seeing the retail space
at Carousel Court on Nacogdoches Road
inside Loop 410, Mares agreed with her
husband that it was time San Antonio
had an art studio for children.
FOCAL POINT
Why art? Why did Mares pursue an artbased
business rather than something else,
such as tutoring? She says while she was
doing child care, she had an ‘ah-ha’
moment. “I saw an opportunity to educate
parents and child care professionals about
the impact of hands-on creative thinking,”
says Mares. “For me, art was the natural
vehicle. You can learn everything through
art. It’s the only subject where you can (and
should) use all of your senses. It brings the
world to the participant like no other activity
can. Math, history, science and pure
wonder are just some of things you can
learn through art. It also meets the learning
styles of most children.”
Mares says the first three years were the
hardest. “In the beginning there were
crayons and paper and parents who did not
understand that there is more to art than
drawing,” she says. “I’ve had three businesses
and worked in the corporate world.
I know perseverance and the right flow are
essential. I started to realize that parents
needed to be educated on the mere subject
of art. I had to tell them, ‘Children need art.
It makes them see and hear, it helps to instill
compassion, it teaches sharing, it helps
them cope, it helps them think, and you
should do art too.’ Once they understood,
they got it, and Artworks grew.”
A HAVEN IN A
PAINT-BY-NUMBER WORLD
Artworks caters to a multitude of
audiences, including early childhood,
tweens, families, Scout troops and home
school programs. From birthday parties
to field trips, art night out and parents’ night out to summer camps, Artworks
has filled a void for parents and children
in the community.
Artworks continues to expand and
grow. Mares began franchising the business
in 2006 after one of her clients asked
to buy a location. She started researching
the idea, and a SCORE small business
counselor told her it couldn’t be done. “I
went to my business attorney, and he said
it would cost me $15,000 to prepare the
legal documents,” says Mares incredulously. “I said no way am I paying that, I’ll write
the documents myself.” Her attorney
believed in her and said he’d see her in a
month or two. “Two weeks later I emailed
him the finished documents. He
was skeptical. I told him to call me in 48
hours and give me a grade after he’d
reviewed them. He did just that, almost to
the minute, and said he would give me a
B+!” she says proudly. The second
Artworks location opened off Bandera
Road last year, and a third opened in
Garden Ridge at Bracken Village earlier
this year. Mares plans to sell the original
location so she can concentrate on
expanding Artworks through franchising.
Like the other women in this article,
Lisa Mares is passionate about her work. “I came to the conclusion that someone
has to do it — give children an avenue
for creative thinking in a supportive environment.
The reality is, schools are
pressed for dollars and time, and parents
often do not know where to start,” she
says. “Hands-on activities are often a
pastime that we are too busy to take the
time to enjoy … or clean up after!
“Children are happy and content
when doing art and when they’re at
Artworks,” says Mares. “I’m pleased to
offer a space where children can dream,
play and imagine.”
 MARY REILLY-MAGEE
Love to Swim School
Established 2003
Love-to-Swim.com
“Building happy, confident,
masterful, lifelong swimmers.”
Water has always been a part of Mary
Reilly-Magee’s life. Born and raised in the
west suburbs of Chicago, she had a
mother who was adamant that her children
know how to swim because she
never learned how.
“I look back and think, ‘Wow, what
an incredible, beautiful gift she gave to
me,’” says Reilly-Magee, who has spent
the last 22 years teaching swimming to
the young and old of San Antonio.
But like so many others who wind up on
a path they didn’t intend to follow, Reilly-
Magee considered swimming only a sideline,
not the main event. In high school she
was a lifeguard; then she moved to Texas
for college. She taught swimming while
earning her bachelor’s degree in English
from UTSA. Then it was on to a master’s
degree in English literature. “Everyone
asked me if I was going to teach,” recalls
Reilly-Magee. “I said no. I’m going to get a
real job once I finish my degree.”
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
She taught English for five years at
Holmes High School, as well as coaching
the swim and water polo teams. She also
became the program director of night
swim lessons for Northside Aquatics,
where she developed an adult swim lesson
program. “I kind of think of myself
as a George Block disciple,” she says of
Northside Independent School District’s
director of aquatics and one of the
founders of the San Antonio Sports
Foundation. “He’s been my mentor for
many years and taught me how the
sport of swimming develops people and
influences character. He gave me the
opportunity to teach and mold children
and adults.”
About six years ago Reilly-Magee had
an epiphany. “I finally accepted that
teaching people the lifelong and lifesaving
skill of swimming is what I’m meant
to do, and in order to do that successfully
I needed the right environment —
warm water and warm air,” she explains. “You cannot teach babies in the same
pool in which you’re running competitive
swimming. It’s tough teaching kids in
cold water because they’re all rigid and
stiff, not to mention unhappy about the
cold. A child’s comfort level is a huge
part of the learning process.”
She started looking for “water to
rent” and ended up at the Bandera
Pointe Spectrum. “But I couldn’t control
the air or water temperature there either.
It was such a bummer because you want
to give kids every advantage so they can
be successful. Freezing kids don’t have
fun in the water,” says Reilly-Magee. She
contacted a commercial real estate agent
and starting searching for her own place.
She found what she thought was the
perfect location in a neighborhood by Sea
World that had a pool as part of the
homeowners association. The association
didn’t have the funds to keep the pool
open, so she tried to rent or buy the space.“Ultimately they elected to fill it in with
dirt. I was devastated,” she remembers.
By this time she knew she wanted to
build a highly customized indoor facility,
with a small, shallow pool equipped with
a teaching ledge and another larger pool— both of which are a balmy 92
degrees. She explored a number of
options and nearly sealed a deal at a
stand-alone location, but says, “I woke
up one night and knew it wasn’t the
right place. The landlord was already giving me a hard time about my plans;
things weren’t clicking.”
She walked away and did a week of
shopping therapy. Then one of the
locations she had negotiated with
called her to say they were interested in
coming up with some creative solutions.
Love to Swim School now resides
at 15502 Huebner Road next to a variety
of other businesses.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
That is to say, Reilly-Magee is always
striving to make sure her clients feel they
are getting their money’s worth at Love to
Swim School. “We spend a lot of time educating
parents on the curriculum because
they often have unrealistic expectations.
Many parents think two weeks of swim
lessons in the summer should suffice. But
really, what’s your expectation of proficiency
after eight hours of instruction over two
weeks?” she asks. “Learning to swim is
analogous to learning to read or playing an
instrument. Our program is not for everyone
because we are dedicated to producing
masterful, lifelong swimmers, and that
takes time. We have a proven technique
that breaks each part down. Each skill is a
building block for the next. Over time, that
results in real mastery and, thus, safety. This
gives parents peace of mind and also
results in strong, confident swimmers.”
That fierce determination to delivering
quality means she makes a sizable commitment
to ongoing training for her staff
of 41, 35 of whom are coaches. “That’s
been one of the more difficult things to
accept with this business — that staffing is
cyclical,” she confesses. “Ensuring we
have highly trained, professional coaches
means we’re constantly building and
rebuilding. It’s a big investment in time and
money but ultimately worth it.”
For those thinking of starting a childfocused
business, Reilly-Magee says to
do your research. “And you really have
to love what you do,” she stresses.
“Most days are going to be great. But if
you don’t love it, those bad days will put
you out. And it’s important to remember
when dealing with parents that they’re
giving you their two most precious
things, their child and their money. You
have to have a healthy respect for that.”
BEYOND TREADING WATER
She says the first year at the new site
was the roughest because she had to
sacrifice a lot of time with her husband
and two children to build the business. “My family definitely made sacrifices so I
could realize this dream, but I think
they’re proud of what we’ve built,” she
says. In fact, before she opened, she
hosted a “thank you” gathering and
made sure her then 9-year-old daughter
was there to see how many people it
took to put the business together. “None
of this would have happened without
their support,” she declares.
After a year and half, Reilly-Magee says
she finally has some breathing room and is
even contemplating a second location. She
is quick not to take all the credit for the
business: “I’m blessed to have a fantastic
staff who have played a huge role in developing
the business and making our vision a
reality.” San Antonio’s families are fortunate
to have such a resource, and to think,
it’s all because “my mom decided to teach
me how to swim,” winks Reilly-Magee.
 DOROTHY “DOTTIE” MCKINLEY
Walden Pond InterArts
Learning Center
Established 1985
(210) 822-4717
“Workshops in a loving, intimate,
creatively challenging environment
devoted to the uniqueness of
every child.”
Serendipity led Dorothy McKinley, or “Dottie,” as the children call her, to her
true calling — teaching. Born and raised
in San Antonio during a time when many
women didn’t envision themselves with
careers outside the home, McKinley
made a number of fortunate discoveries
and accidental contacts that led her to
found Walden Pond InterArts Learning
Center 22 years ago.
“My teaching career started when I
ran into one of my old professors from
the University of Texas at Austin who
was teaching at San Antonio College.
He said they had a job opening, and he
thought I should come in for an interview,”
McKinley remembers. “I had no
plans to work as I still had my master’s
thesis in fine art to do, not to mention
I had never taught before and was terrified
of public speaking.”
To her chagrin she got the job, and
they gave her five courses to teach,
including art history. That’s when she
says God kicked her in the pants: “It was
really hard on me. I had no curriculum,
no syllabus — but I got over my fear of
public speaking!” The experience boosted
her confidence and laid the groundwork
for successes to come.
TURNING POINT
She quit San Antonio College when her
first son was born. That’s when her husband
of six years lost his job … a really
good job that would have enabled her to
stay home with her baby. “He came home
and announced I needed to go out and
get a job. I was terrified!” recalls McKinley.“I wasn’t raised to think like that. I only
saw myself as a mother and an artist.” She
was desperate and went through a threeday
period of serious soul-searching: “Then I saw it in an instant — I knew I was
supposed to teach children.”
The dominoes started to fall into
place when days later she ran into one
of her former teachers from Saint
Mary’s Hall. “I told her to call me if they
needed an art teacher, not thinking
anything would come of it since Saint
Mary’s Hall already had one that was
practically an institution,” she says. To
her surprise she received a call two
weeks later saying the other teacher
was retiring. McKinley taught art parttime
to grades one through seven at
Saint Mary’s Hall for six years. “It was
perfect because I didn’t want to leave
my baby too long,” she says.
McKinley knew she wanted to have her
own school, and the foundation for her
proprietary InterArts curriculum began to
unfold. She rented space and opened the
Creative Eye Art School for children ages
3-13. She taught art every Saturday for 10
years while working part-time for Saint
Mary’s and then for St. David’s Episcopal
School. During that time she also had her
second son. “I was exhausted and in tears.
I never had a weekend with my own children
and was getting burned out,” she
says ruefully. She gave up the Creative Eye
and went to work fulltime for San Antonio
Academy of Texas.
THE PERFECT POND
After six years at the Academy, she
knew it was time to go out on her own.
And, as with the other businesswomen
in this article, the right location was
key. “I knew nature was going to be a
big part of the curriculum,” says
McKinley, who has been greatly influenced
by the philosophy of Henry David
Thoreau. “I wanted the classrooms to
feel as though they were part of
nature; I wanted a pond and animals
on the property too.”
She had to act fast and open by summer
because she wanted to take advantage
of her following from the Academy. “I didn’t want to rent space. I wanted to
buy it as an investment for the future,”
she says. With her husband’s full support
and a loan from his mother, she went
shopping for the perfect location with a
former colleague who had since become
a real estate agent. McKinley recalls, “She took me to six properties. I didn’t
even get out of the car for the first five.
I’m sure she saved the best for last
because it had a swimming pool and
backed up to Brackenridge Park. I knew
it was mine. I had no doubt in my mind.”
TRANSCENDENCE
Walden Pond opened at the idyllic
3546 Avenue B location near the Witte
Museum that summer and has been
expanding the innate creative potential
of children ever since. McKinley’s
InterArts method is an interdisciplinary
approach to learning that uses experiential
immersion in various subject areas,
themes and periods of history. Children
ages 3 to 12 are encouraged to explore,
experiment and express themselves verbally
and visually.
For instance, Walden Pond’s summer
workshops focused on nature’s wonders,
and each week was dedicated to a different
part of the world. During the “Wonders of Alaska” week, children
were surrounded by glorious glaciers
made of Styrofoam and cold-loving
wood, plastic and stuffed animals that
the children could touch. They created
masterpieces out of paint, leaves and
twigs, all to the calming sounds of
nature in the background.
“The curriculum is built on the
premise that all children are born with
the gift of creativity,” explains McKinley. “If you don’t help children stay in touch
with their creative core, the part that is
inherently comfortable making hundreds
of choices while making a drawing, then
they become stifled by the third grade.”
She believes creative expression builds a
strong foundation of self-esteem and
confidence that helps children manifest
their own dreams and visions as they
grow older. “It’s not the end result that
matters,” she says of the art created at
Walden Pond. “It’s the process of creation,
pulling the head and the heart
together, that really matters.”
The longevity of the program, as well
as the students who now span multiple
generations, speak volumes about how
McKinley’s Walden Pond has transcended
her original vision. |
