Hi! We are Chip and Amy Selley, and we are over-the-moon excited to take on this new chapter at The Little Gym. A combination of recent fortunate circumstances has allowed us to be in a position to purchase this franchise, choosing to invest both our capital and time, dedicated to enriching the lives of children.  

Some background on how we got here, we met in college in Upstate New York 1991 and moved to the North Shore in 1994. We built our house in Beverly in 2003, putting down roots in this community with long term intentions. Since then we’ve become parents to Caden (17) and Macie (20), 2 dogs, River (3), and Willow (3 months!), 8 chickens, and 70,003 honey bees (at last count ha ha). This Fall, Macie will be starting her Junior year at Simmons University in their 4+1 program; she will earn her Master's Degree in Behavioral Science with the goal to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), ultimately working with children on the autism spectrum. In September, Caden will be starting his Senior year at Essex North Shore Technical High School with a concentration in Environmental Technology.

Amy’s background; after graduating from Syracuse University with a BS degree in Early Childhood Education in 1992, I worked for 10 years at the preschool located at the Harvard University School of Business in Cambridge. Most recently (for the past 10 years), I have been working as a paraprofessional at Beverly Public Schools as a preschool teacher in the intensive - integrated classroom. My role has been to work with developmentally delayed children, often on the autistic spectrum, and help to successfully transition them into Kindergarten with other children. My philosophy has always been to focus on the whole child; physical, mental, and emotional. I posted my first blog here for those who want to hear more and learn about post-pandemic child socialization. Lastly, as a teacher my work can only affect the amount of children in my classroom - not more than a dozen per year. By leaving my job as a public school teacher and dedicating my full time efforts towards operating The Little Gym: I will be able to positively affect 100’s of children per year, and I couldn’t be more humbled by that opportunity. 

Chip’s background; I have 30+ years of startup and small business experience in several industries, as well as some corporate sales. As an entrepreneur since 2010, I’ve had some wins and losses. In 2010 I founded a music-related software service for restaurants (called iJukebox) that went from an idea to being iterated to bring a streaming music service to market into many well-known restaurant chains. That startup failed, and it was an expensive learning experience, being a nice-to-have in a small addressable market. In 2016 I joined Rocketbook as the third full time team member, where I launched their corporate (B2B) sales division which was purchased by Bic pens in December of 2020. Since 2018 I have been working with Boston Surface Railroad to capitalize an interesting project that would bring passenger rail to several of New England’s gateway cities. 

But wait, there’s more! Get this - we are going to relocate The Little Gym from Route 114 to a quiet office park at 5 Cherry Hill (yes, right near the ice cream place!). The new gym will feature a larger and more comfy waiting and viewing area with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, some new technology that will enhance our members' experience, and the addition of a dance studio with classes. We believe the new site will provide a more serene experience for members and we are excited to start construction this month. We expect to open at Cherry Hill in time for the start of the new curriculum season in late August or beginning of September. 

Did we mention, we're over the moon excited about this?! Hope to see you all soon. Yay!