Help more athletes move.
Echo Motion Fitness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit making adaptive fitness accessible to athletes of all abilities. Every gift funds programs, equipment, and paid jobs and training for individuals with disabilities.
Every gift counts
Choose where your gift goes: paid jobs for people with disabilities, new adaptive sports clinics, or social events that bring athletes and caregivers together. Every donation goes straight to the program you pick and helps our community grow stronger.
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Social events
Friendship and belonging matter just as much as fitness. Your gift funds social events where athletes, families and caregivers can relax, have fun and build lasting connections outside the gym.
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Jobs for our athletes
Your gift helps Echo Motion Fitness create paid jobs and on-the-job training for people with disabilities, right inside our gym.
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specialized clinics
Every athlete deserves the chance to play. Your gift helps us launch new adaptive soccer, cycling, basketball, and womens health clinics for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
built for our athletes and the people who care for them.
Fitness
Nearly half of adults with disabilities get no leisure-time aerobic activity, and they are 3x more likely to have heart disease, stroke, diabetes or cancer.
Jobs
Only 22.8% of people with a disability are employed, vs. 65.2% of people without.
Connection
85% of young adults with developmental disabilities say they feel lonely most days.
Board of directors
The people who guide the Echo Motion Fitness non-profit.
Melissa Schaffer
Board Member
Melissa spent more than 20 years as a special education teacher, helping students with disabilities build skills and confidence. She holds a Master’s in Special Education and a Bachelor’s in Communicative Disorders, and after she founded the gym Echo Motion, she created a not-for-profit, Echo Motion Fitness, to expand support for athletes with disabilities and their caregivers.
Paige Kennedy-Piehl
Board Member
Paige is a longtime advocate for individuals living with or affected by autism. She believes autism is a “blessing, not a burden,” a perspective shaped by her son Quinn, who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Since then, Paige has dedicated herself to promoting inclusion, acceptance, and understanding. Her lifelong mission is to advocate not only for Quinn, but for the neurodivergent community as a whole, helping create a world where every individual is valued, accepted, and celebrated for who they are.
Narine Botts
Board Member
Narine Botts has more than 20 years of experience in special education. She started as an educational assistant, went on to support students with behavioral needs, and then became a special education teacher. Throughout her career, she has advocated for students with special needs to get the education and support they deserve. As a District Intervention Teacher Specialist, she now helps school teams use data and proven strategies to support students in the classroom. She also helps lead her district’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).
In the community
How the Echo Motion Fitness non-profit shows up in Pasadena.
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Resource Fair
Promoting health and fitness to the community
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Frequently asked questions
Are you a nonprofit, and is my donation tax-deductible?
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit and your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Every donor gets a receipt.
How is my donation used, and how much goes to programs?
Your donations fund the creation of new sports clinics for our athletes, job training and paid employment in the gym for individuals with disabilities, adaptive fitness equipment and gym expansion to support more of our community, and social event activities for athletes, family members and caregivers. 80% of all donation money goes directly to programs.
Who do you serve?
We serve ages 10 and up with developmental and other disabilities in the Southern California region with programs for fitness, employment and social activities. For employment, we serve ages 18 and up for job training, and paid employment within the gym.
What difference does my gift make?
Your gift will help support our current athlete community and their families and caregivers. It gives opportunities to individuals with disabilities the ability to enjoy movement and work toward independence, including covering their paid employment.
What other ways can I give or get involved?
The different ways you can give are through monthly giving, employer matching gifts, sponsorships, donor-advised funds, and volunteering.
Can I give in honor or memory of someone?
Yes. A tribute gift is a meaningful way to celebrate someone special or remember a loved one while supporting athletes in our community. When you donate, select “in honor of” or “in memory of” and enter the person’s name. If you’d like us to tell the honoree or their family about your gift, select ‘notify someone by email’ and include their email address and a message. Tribute gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Come see the gym.
Tours are part of every free consultation.