Florissant, Mo. — Jumping rope and spending time with friends at St. Ferdinand Park allows Ki Chap to be worry-free every Tuesday for an hour and a half.
Chap is captain of the St. Louis sub club of the 40+ Double Dutch Club, a national and international organization for women aged 40 and up.
The meetups include open play of Double Dutch accompanied with the club’s jump rope jingle, hula-hoop, and more, followed by a choreographed crisscross hopscotch line dance as a cooldown and a prayer circle to end.
“It gives me an out,” Chap said. “I’m a mom, I’m a wife, I own my own business, so it just gives me this hour and a half just to be free to do whatever I want, just to let my hair down.”
Each member wears a red 40+ Double Dutch shirt that displays their name and proudly has their age on the back.
Chap loved Double Dutch as a child and previously had tried to get her friends together to play, but it did not last long. After finding the St. Louis sub club in 2021, she quickly got involved in.
“I’m not as good as I was when I was younger. I can’t jump as fast; I can’t jump as long, but I did jump a lot as a kid,” Chap said.
In 2016, Chicago resident, Pamela Pelt-Robinson, was going through a difficult time in her life when she asked her friend, Catrina Dyer-Taylor, about doing Double Dutch with her again like they did as children.
“We used to just play outside,” Pelt-Robinson said. “It was a very carefree feeling, and that was what I needed at that time.”
She created a Facebook post asking women 40 years of age and older if they wanted to join her in playing Double Dutch.
“I specifically wanted it to be women over 40 because at our age, traditionally, women over 40 spend so much time taking care of our husbands, our kids, our grandkids, our parents even, and I wanted us to just have some time for ourselves where we didn’t have to worry about anybody else,” Pelt-Robinson said.
In 2019, the 40+ Double Dutch Club was featured on the “Windy City Live” talk show. After the organization’s segment was posted on the talk show’s social media, 40+ Double Dutch Club’s Facebook group grew from 30 Chicago residents to 1,000 women nationwide in three days, according to Pelt-Robinson.
The meetups include open play of Double Dutch accompanied with the club’s jump rope jingle, hula-hoop, and more, followed by a choreographed crisscross hopscotch line dance as a cooldown and a prayer circle to end. (Spectrum News/Elizabeth Barmeier)
She said women from across the U.S. were reaching out to her and Dyer-Taylor about how they could start a similar club where they live. They went to work creating guidelines, meetup formats and more.
Today, the organization has more than 100 sub clubs nationwide and sub clubs in Germany, Israel and Canada, according to Pelt-Robinson. A 40+ Double Dutch Club member can participate in any sub club.
“I did not ever think it would grow the way it has,” Pelt-Robinson said.
While it started out as an outlet for Pelt-Robinson and Dyer-Taylor, they never imagined it would be an outlet for so many others.
“Catrina was just trying to support me because she knew that I wasn’t myself and I was having a really difficult time,” Petl-Robinson said.
Chicago sub club member, Okila Ramsey, joined the 40+ Double Dutch Club in 2019 when she was going through a difficult time in her life.
“I was finding myself being depressed, not getting out of the house, not doing nothing,” she said. “I’m really blessed that I was able to recognize it before I did a full downward spiral.”
Ramsey and her sisters had jumped growing up and continued to do so in adulthood.
“When I saw the movement, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is something that I can do and just have fun,’ because I wasn’t having fun in my life at that point of time,” she said.
Ramsey said she felt welcomed and inspired by the women upon joining. She soon found herself jumping four to five times per week, letting go of her worries.
“The more I did it, the more I fell in love with it,” she said.
40+ Double Dutch Club is more than jumping ropes. Members take part in outreach events in their communities, such as feeding the homeless, teaching children how to Double Dutch at schools, handing out clothes at women’s shelters, among other events.
To spread word of the organization and inspire others to join, Ramsey became a brand ambassador and event coordinator.
“We’re a real sisterhood. We check in on each other,” she said. “We pray for each other. We support each other in our everyday lives.”
Ramsey coordinates community outreach events for the Chicago sub club and said members will visit incarcerated women at the Cook County Jail on Nov. 17.
The purpose of the visit is to let the incarcerated women know that they are not forgotten, and that their mental and physical health are still important, she said.
“It’s about connecting with women throughout the world and letting them know that they need to take care of themselves for their mental health, their physical fitness, (and) their spirituality,” she said.
As a brand ambassador, Ramsey oversees the St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., sub clubs.
The St. Louis sub club members smile together for a photo at St. Ferdinand Park where they meet during the warm months. (Spectrum News/Elizabeth Barmeier)
The St. Louis sub club began in 2019, which has grown to 12 active members who meet on Tuesday evenings at St. Ferdinand Park during the warm months.
“More people are finding out about it, so we’re growing,” Chap said. “I’m just hoping that we can be as big as some of the other sub clubs.”
Veronica Patton never played Double Dutch growing up, but that did not stop her from joining the St. Louis sub club on her 40th birthday in August.
Patton was searching for an outlet for herself as she said her weeks consisted of taking her daughter to swim class, gymnastics and tennis.
“I really didn’t have anything for myself. I was really looking for something that I could just be me,” she said.
While Patton is still learning the ropes, she said her Double Dutch skills have improved.
“I’m still getting better. I’m not where I want to be, but I want to learn how to do all of the stuff like you see on Instagram videos,” Patton said.
“This group has honestly taken me out of my comfort zone, so I just love it.”
Patton will be taking on more of the sub club’s responsibilities soon when she becomes co-caption with Chap.
“I’m just excited to see where we can go as far as being out in the community creating an awareness of mental health,” she said.
For those who are thinking about joining, Patton’s advice is to attend a meetup.
“If you’re apprehensive about jumping, if you never learned how to jump, we can teach you how to jump,” she said.
There are multiple Double Dutch clubs in California, Florida, New York and Texas.
For more information about 40+ Double Dutch Club, click here.