PENFIELD -- Sarah Jane Clifford has convinced thousands of parents that Penfield is a good place to learn gymnastics.  As many children are learning the fine art of tumbling at her Gymnastics Training Center of Rochester -- 2,000 of them -- as are taught the three R's at any single high school in the Rochester area.

Now Clifford will turn her attention to convincing people that Penfield is a good place to do business too.  Clifford has been named president of the Penfield Business Association, the civic group that has become Penfield's equivalent of a chamber of commerce.  She replaces John Wilkie, who stepped down last November.  And she knows a bit about business.  She has built her $1.2 million training center, located at 2051 Fairport-Nine Mile Point Road, into the largest in the Northeast and one of the biggest in the United States.  One of Clifford's goals will be to oversee publication of a guide to Penfield businesses, organized in part by neighborhood.  The city of Rochester publishes a similiar guide.

Penfield has five distinct commercial areas: the Panorama Valley, the down-townish Four Corners at Five Mile Line Road and Route 441, the intersection of routes 441 and 250, Browncroft Boulevard and Empire Boulevard.   Clifford said not everyone realizes the diversity of the stores located in Penfield.  She admits that at one time, "I didn't even know Empire Boulevard was in Penfield."  (Many confuse it with Webster.)  The Penfield Business Association has published a guide of its members before.  But this new booklet will be different, she said -- a complete guide to Penfield, with information on school test scores and town telephone numbers.  She believes it will be an invaluable marketing tool for the town.

"I want to come up with a quality piece that would attract other businesses and residents to Penfield," she said.  Down the road, she imagines even producing CD-ROM versions of the guide, with pictures of each business included.  She believes that it could also help people interested in shopping close to home.  "Anything you would need to buy -- as far as I'm concerned, you can buy it in Penfield," she said.  Another project for the Penfield Business Association is what to do with the Four Corners Festival started last year.  Some association members believe it should be staged again during a weekend in June.  But others suggest that it move to September and merge with the 28-year-old Country Fair Days festival run by the Penfield Lions Club.  Members should decide as soon as Feb. 9.   Clifford said she believes the initial Four Corners Festival was a great first effort.  Although it didn't make a lot of money, "We built a foundation," she said.  John Catena, who joined the Penfield Business Association nine months ago, said he is impressed with Clifford's energy and the ideas of other members of the board.   " I think we have a really good group of people that want to see business in Penfield bloom," said Catena, a chiropractor with an office in the Panorama Valley.

Clifford lives in Perinton with her husband, Tim.   She has two stepdaughters: both attend the University of Arizona.