Once home from New York, Tarah returned to training and in her spare time took up doing community charity work around town as well. One such job was housekeeping for an 89 year old lady on Saturdays. She also began baking cupcakes every Sunday morning (to make a little extra spending money) and built up her clientele in neighbors who loved to indulge in the tasty delivered treats. It wasn’t much, but it didn’t matter. Tarah looked on it as a fun way to both get to know her surroundings and give back to her community. Come fall though, she again needed to collect some serious money... gymnastics sponsorships from Edmond merchants to help pay for her many gymnastics expenses. This time, with her experience from last year, she exceeded her goal and raised over $5200 for herself…which amounted to enough advertising to fill 15 pgs (over 25%) of the entire Dynamo competition program book! ...All this in only 3 months of sporadic soliciting on her way to gymnastics practice.

       Tarah spent the 1st hours of the new Millennium/Age at Oklahoma’s New Year’s Eve statewide “Opening Night” Party, at which she put her newly purchased camcorder to work recording the festivities. Then shortly after the start of the New Year she changed gyms to Bart Conner’s Gymnastics (BCG) Academy in Norman Oklahoma, a 45 min drive from her Edmond dwelling. Her Dynamo coaches had turned their attention to making a “comeback” for past Olympian Shannon Miller, and sort of just “lost interest” in the other gymnasts training. Tarah’s body had also been plagued off and on over the last year or so with minor injuries (mostly due to overly demanding training on the less-than-adequate ‘morning workout’ equipment—which paled in comparison to the gym’s main state-of-the-art ‘afternoon workout’ equipment)—Both of which she was required to use. Her healthy diet and care for her body helped her endure and keep any potential major injuries as only minor ones—rare in a sport as physical as gymnastics.  But even so, the development of shin splints in her legs were almost more pain than she could bare to tumble and vault on, and a pulled hamstring factored somewhere into the equation as well.  In Tulsa, Tarah pushed through and qualified to the Classics, with her new coach of only 2 days.  Then, at the nationally attended Nadia Comenici Invitational (still with BCG), she continued on to win 2nd all-around as well as several individual event finalist medals. She filmed a Pfizer Pharmaceutical advertisement while there, won a spot on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, helped to host the Annual Induction Ceremony at the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, and went to the U.S. Gymnastics Classics. Again though, sadly she did not place high enough to make it to the ever-elusive National Championships. Tarah was disappointed. On the bright side, the TV Cameras found her and decided to focus on her story. She played the harp at the request of FOX Television (in the middle of the gymnastics floor), gave several interviews to photographers, and was filmed and commentated on during her routines.  Clearly, she was the FOX Family Channel’s pick for “Rising New Star” which aired as the show, “U.S. Gymnasts Go for the Gold.” She loved it & this spirit brightener was certainly the main highlight for Tarah of this whole event! 

        Also this year, she flew to Arizona to be a special guest performer for her favorite “Val Vista Show,” and was selected to perform at the 2000 National Harp Convention in Lubbock, Texas.  She also acquired her beloved Blue-Point Siamese kitten, "YumYum", and got her Drivers License. Her brother Devon graduated ASU with a degree in Aerospace Engineering in May & Tarah went home to witness his ceremony.

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