On a very hot July day in 1985, I walked into the Alexander Family YMCA, then called the Raleigh YMCA, and picked up an application for a job working with kids. A friend from my hometown of Fayetteville, NC, (pronounced Fay’dville) spent a couple of summers working at Camp Seafarer and suggested I look into the Y as a part-time gig while at school at NC State.
Little did I know what that one act would lead to.
I was at our overnight coastal camps last week and considered the moments that are created day in and day out in our facilities and at our programs. Many are just that, passing connections that make life slightly better.
But some of these moments are life altering.
A former YOTA swimmer, Hannah Aspden, is now a Paralympic swimmer who was the youngest swimmer to medal in the Olympics or Paralympics in 2016 and is preparing for her third Paralympic Games later this month as the U.S. team captain.
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor of the NC Symphony, attended Camp Sea Gull as a child because his parents wanted him to learn English in a non-school setting.
Though the names in them may be less notable, the stories of members who found community and purpose after dark days, of kids who found their voice and safe space, and of families who were held together with our camps and programs are no less impactful.
And every single day I get to come to work with full and part-time staff members at the Y who were first introduced as a camper, youth sports participant or after-school kid. Who were so influenced by their experiences as kids that they wanted to make it their life’s work. Myself included.
Every day that we come to work at the YMCA, there might offer the opportunity to change the course of someone’s life. That sounds extreme, but the proof is all around us: skills that have been developed, passions that have been discovered, relationships that have been built (and sometimes led to marriage and kids!) and career trajectories that have been launched.
