When Regina Plaza — or “Gigi Love,” as she is better known — walked into a Sunrise gym on a recent Thursday evening, she approached Cindy Edwards, who was sitting on the bleachers.
Plaza asked Edwards if she’d accompany her soon to visit Plaza’s mom, who has dementia. Edwards agreed, as would most of the women who are proud members of the 40+ Double Dutch Club in South Florida.
Because while the stated mission of the global nonprofit is to “empower women in mental health and physical fitness” through jumping rope, hula-hooping, line dancing, pogo sticking and more, the members agree: The sisterhood is what keeps them there.
“No men, no kids, no pets, no stress,” Adrienne C. Philpart — also known as “Asia” — said during a recent night meeting. Philpart, 53, of Coral Springs, who is the South Florida sub-club’s captain along with two co-captains, is known to her counterparts as the “daredevil,” a name she earned from her cartwheels, ability to jump rope while on a pogo stick and willingness to try just about anything.
For Plaza, 61, of Davie, the community of 40+ Double Dutch was a welcome escape after the death of her husband, an unexpected blow dealt by COVID-19. And now, the group supports her as she cares for her mother.
“They didn’t know me from anybody,” Plaza said, tears streaking her face. “They will go and see my mom. … And they always ask me about my mom.”
“They became my family now,” she said.
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The club’s inception
Years ago, Pamela Robinson, a mother who lives in Chicago, wanted a way to ease the hardships that life had lobbed at her, when she thought of the jump rope tucked away in her car trunk. She reached out to a friend and asked if they could jump rope together.
As a kid, Robinson remembers how integral double Dutch was, especially because her parents and her friends’ parents didn’t have money for expensive toys.
“We would jump rope with a plastic clothesline. Some people used an extension cord,” she said. “We were resourceful because we didn’t have a lot but we still wanted to have fun, and back in the day, we used to play outside all day every day, and that’s what the girls would do.”
Robinson told her friend they needed to “be intentional about playing outside, jumping rope, having fun again like we used to.”
“We’re over 40. We spend so much time taking care of our husbands, our kids, our grandkids, our parents now, that we don’t have a lot of time to spend focusing on ourselves,” Robinson said.
Robinson made a Facebook post inviting any woman over 40 to “get together and jump rope and have fun like we did when we were kids,” Robinson said.
She estimates she got around 180 responses with people eager to participate — but when they actually held the gathering on June 2, 2016, seven people, including Robinson, showed up.
“It was fine because you only need three people to jump, so it was fine, and we had a great time,” Robinson said. “That was the beginning of our meet-ups.”
A rapid rise
Then, an explosion happened: Shortly after the 40+ Double Dutch Club was featured on a local Chicago talk show called Windy City Live in 2019, the group’s Facebook page grew from less than 50 users to more than 1,000, and people from all over the United States — California, New York, North Carolina, Florida — were reaching out to Robinson about how to start their own club.
From there, Robinson had to turn the club into an official nonprofit organization, get insurance, craft a mission statement and create a framework for captains of the newly founded clubs across the U.S. to follow when conducting meetings.
One of the people who reached out to Robinson was Philpart, who FaceTimed with her to talk about how to create a South Florida subclub.
Philpart said the South Florida club, which is the only one in the region, started out with about six members and has since grown to have about 40 people in what Philpart called the core group.
The first part of every club gathering, after five to 10 minutes of stretching, is considered open play — as women trickle in, they may partake in any activity they choose, such as jumping rope, hula hooping or pogo sticking.
“You know how some people need to go to the gym? We need to jump,” Cindy Edwards, 57, of Boca Raton, said.
After open play, there is after play, which involves a group activity such as synchronized line dance, hopscotch or hide and seek. During the Sunrise club on a recent Thursday, the women line danced, spreading out black and red fans as music thumped against the walls of the gym.
Each meeting concludes the same way. The women clasp hands and form a circle, and any new members stand in the middle to become recipients of the group’s welcome song, which they sing as they sway in unison. If no one new has joined, the group jumps straight to the final part of the club, which is a group prayer.
Club announcements, prayer requests or anything a member may want to say is shared around this time as well. On this particular Thursday, plans were made to celebrate one of the member’s upcoming birthday. In a world where women are often shamed for their age, the 40+ Double Dutch Club women rejoice not only in their birthdays but in their ages as well — so much so that their club T-shirts brandish their ages on the back.
“We’re vibing, we’re not dried up,” Philpart said.
Plaza prayed over the group during the recent Thursday gathering.
“Thank you for another night of fun, fellowship, and friendship, God. We thank you for the newcomers in Jesus’ name. We thank you for those that wanted to be here and could not come, Lord God,” Plaza said, her voice echoing through the circle as members murmured affirmations to her prayer.
The women chat as they leave the gym knowing most of them will see each other soon — Saturday’s club meeting is, after all, just a couple days away.
