Virginia Hawthorne, Class of 1961

There's an old Hollywood adage that you shouldn't share the stage with animals and children, as they're certain to steal the scene.

That's just fine with Virginia Hawthorne. She gladly gives up the limelight that shines on the award-winning Valley View Vaulters, co-founded with husband Rick more than 20 years ago.

The non-profit Valley View Vaulters teaches vaulting, a thrilling combination of gymnastics and horseback riding. Vaulting is an international sport in which participants perform a variety of gymnastic exercises on the horse as it moves in a circle. Categories include seven required exercises known as compulsories and "kurs," free-style routines performed with one, two or three vaulters at a time on a moving horse. Riders are judged on grace, difficulty and quality of performance.

"This work really, really is a challenge, but I love every minute of it. It keeps kids busy and, in doing so, they become winners. That's very satisfying," she says.

The Class of 1961 graphic arts major became involved in vaulting when daughters Shannon and Carolyn (also a Woodbury alumna) discovered this unique sport. While Hawthorne's graphic design resume boasts work for J.C. Penney's advertising department and freelance stints for TV Guide and National Computer and Sports magazines, she quickly found herself drawn into a new world.

That world included meeting Rick, who coached her daughters.

"It was the beginning of the end," she laughs. "It was just fascinating to see what he (Rick) could do with these kids."

The pair soon formed their own team with only a practice horse. Classes have grown from seven students at one location to more than 100 riders at sites in Lake View Terrace and Long Beach.

Hawthorne takes pride in teaching vaulting to handicapped and non-handicapped people of all ages and abilities. Roughly one-third of the 125 vaulters are handicapped, a ratio that Hawthorne says benefits all of her students. Handicapped students learn more quickly by watching and doing, she says, in addition to learning to accomplish tasks in a non-handicapped world. The non-handicapped, she explains, learn to accept people who are different.

"It's great because people forget their differences and work together on something that they all enjoy, something that is fun," Hawthorne explains.

Helping handicapped riders is especially important to the Hawthornes because Rick lost his arm to cancer at the age of 11. Valley View Vaulting bills itself as the only mainstream competitive vaulting club that has handicapped and non-handicapped vaulters competing in non-handicapped classes.

Some of the handicaps include autism, arthritis, amputation, vision impairment and blindness, cerebral palsy, dyslexia, muscular dystrophy, Down's syndrome and those with attention deficit disorder. Riders range in age from 2 through adult, beginners through gold medalists.

Valley View Vaulters has achieved great success since its inception in 1980, with Virginia particularly pleased to have exhibited the sport at the 1984 and 1996 Olympic games. Valley View Vaulters also are regularly seen at the Special Olympics, parades throughout Southern California and as part of demonstrations for hospitals, schools and special groups.

 
To learn more about Valley View Vaulters, please call Hawthorne at 818.302.0153 or send e-mail to vvvvirginia@mediaone.net