Councilmember Gretchen Vance

My name is Gretchen Vance and I am pleased to represent the citizens of Lakeway on the Lakeway City Council. This is my home where I raised my children and am now loving on my grandchildren. This is my happy place where I enjoy walks with our dogs in our beautiful parks and volunteering with our youth. When we all go to bed at night, I believe most of us want the same things. We want to feel safe, we want to feel loved, and we want to feel like we have a voice on issues that are important to us.

When I entered the training room on the first day of my first “real” job out of college, the words “Ladies & Gentleman serving Ladies & Gentleman” were written in bold black letters across the white board. This foundational value still resides in me just as it did when my journey as a management trainee with the Ritz Carlton had begun. As I grew as a person and as a business women I took on new tasks in convention services and meeting planning and after a few years I continued to grow my special event skills with Saks, Inc, the parent company to Saks Fifth Avenue.

Taking a break from the business world to raise my children from newborns to kindergartners, I reentered the workforce in early 2000 as the Director of Sales and Marketing for our family’s Irrigation Firm, which at the time was one of the largest in south central Texas. Responsibilities included commercial contract negotiations with companies such as Walmart, Toyota, and major planned developments, government contracts, municipal permitting and managing a staff that included managers to tradesmen. In 2009, I continued my education becoming a TCEQ Licensed Irrigator (LI18220). This knowledge puts me in a unique position to understand water supply and safety, back flow and irrigation planning and requirements. After its sale in 2011, we moved to Lakeway to retire and ease into a simpler life. We soon discovered that “easy” isn’t always enjoyable and followed our entrepreneurial spirits with the opening of Aquafly in late 2011 on Lake Travis.

Aquafly was one of the premier Jetboarding and Jetpacking training facilities in the country, producing three World Champions, one of the most prolific show teams in the world, and many appearances in Hollywood Movies, TV Shows and America’s Got Talent. From this exposure grew a multitude of opportunities in show production, international events and water sport competitions. Clients included Wynn Resorts Las Vegas (Steve Wynn Pictured Above-Center), Under Armor, Red Bull, the governments of Turkministan, Dubai and Qatar, Nikki Beach Clubs, Savvy Entertainment, Sea World and many others. My husband and I sold Aquafly in 2018 just as another venture we created, Electric Avenue Acro, was starting to gain traction.

Electric Avenue Acro (EAA) is a passion project grown from my youngest daughter’s love of the sport. EAA, is the only dedicated Junior Olympics Acrobatics & Tumbling (A&T) gym in the nation. This facility is home to the 2018 & 2019 USA Gymnastics National Champions in both the Senior and Junior Division. As well as the 2021 & 2022 NYATA National Champions. Acrobatics and Tumbling is the fast-growing sport in the NCAA (My daughter is currently on the Baylor University Acrobatics & Tumbling Team) and is a gateway for scholarships for women who want to be collegiate student athletes. Celebrating 5 years of business in January 2023, we have grown from 15 students to over 500 in various classes such as A&T, Little Ninjas, Tumbling and Cheer Prep. I spend my days heading up the gym’s marketing efforts, Public Relations, social media campaigns and Children’s Programming. Dedicating my time and energy to helping these athletes grow, set and achieve goals and be the best versions of themselves is highly rewarding.

Councilmember Gretchen Vance may be contacted by email: gretchenvance@lakeway-tx.gov