My History With The Y
Some of you may know that I began my career, fresh out of college, with the YMCA. I started out as a part-time marketing assistant at the Metropolitan Offices at the Grand Rapids, Michigan YMCA and eventually moved up to a marketing and membership director at one of its five branches. The West Side Y was a little run down and sat right in the middle of one of the roughest areas of the city. Run down, yes, but also equipped with some of the most caring, hard working staff I’ve ever met. I saw first hand how giving the younger members something to do in the evenings kept them off the streets and out of trouble. I watched as families that couldn’t afford much else, always had a safe, fun place to play together thanks to the scholarship programs. Fast forward a couple of years to a Y conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where I met my future husband, Andy, a Y camp director in Wisconsin Rapids. It didn’t take much persuading on his part to get me to move to Wisconsin and make a little log cabin surrounded by woods and water our home. Yup, you can say that the Y has played a big part in shaping my life.
But actually, my relationship with the Y goes back decades further – to my childhood. Being the youngest of nine children in a family, raised by one amazing parent, you learn quickly that vacations to exotic destinations – you know, like Ohio…the UP, aren’t in the cards for you. Our vacations consisted of day trips taken through the local Park Rec program and swimming in my Uncle John’s pond. Growing up in a rural community, we didn’t have access to a YMCA. That is, until those two glorious weeks every summer when my mother would pack several of us up in the car and head over to the city where we would load the bus for Camp Timbers, a Y camp located in southern Michigan. Once there we all got busy making friends, learning to swim, riding horses and my favorite, singing around the campfire at night. I didn’t think about how my mom paid for these trips back then. She wasn’t one to complain about not having any money. We never seemed to go without – although what we had seems a pittance compared to what my daughters have today. As an adult, I realized how those trips to Camp Timbers came to be. They were funded through the YMCA’s scholarship program. A scholarship program that allowed me and my brothers and sisters the opportunity to make new friends, experience new activities and grow into the kind of adults who appreciate the simple, good things in life. A scholarship program that gave my poor mother a reprieve from the day-to-day madness that runs rampant in a house full of kids!
I am positive that there are tons of stories like mine - little miracles that happen every day at our local YMCA. Some you may witness, others you may not. And most of these miracles may not even be recognized or fully appreciated by the participants…yet.
In a show of support to the Door County YMCA and the services it provides to our community, Boettcher Communications is donating 10% of all new sales in the month of March to the Y’s Strong Kids Campaign. I would like to urge you to donate to this cause as well this year - either through this offer or by making a direct donation. Let’s take care of our kids today. They are the amazing, insightful creatures who will be taking care of us, tomorrow.
Make it a super day!
Dina Boettcher
President, Boettcher Communications, LLC
Office: 920.818.0377
Cell: 920.559.6621
dina@boettchercommunications.com
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