YMCA still has what community needs

YMCA still has what community needs
By BILL DUFFIELD
Kettering-Oakwood Times
10/28/10

From babies to the senior set, Randy Paulin said there's no place better than the YMCA.

"The Y offers so much," Paulin, executive director of the South Y in Kettering, said. "We have child care for six weeks (old babies) all the way up to preschool, then we have school-age childcare, also.

"Our offerings are pretty wide. If you just look at our programs in general, with our sports, we have indoor and outdoor soccer, baseball, basketball, flag football, volleyball, the basics - we have them all," he continued. "The childcare is a big thing that we do and the day camp is huge. But we have swim lessons and gymnastics is a humongous program here, all the from the Tiny Rollers, the preschoolers just starting out, to a competitive national team. Karen Sheldon has been the gymnastics coach here for 25 years and she's one of the best in Southwest Ohio. She is one of the longest tenured coaches in this part of the state. She is a huge asset to us here."

But that's just the tip of the iceberg that is the Y.

"We're also in St. Charles and Ascension with after school programs in which we are on-site in their buildings," Paulin said. "We'd love to expand that and work with Kettering (school district), but we don't know where we are at with that - it would be a tremendous huge boost.

"Then we also do first aid and CPR classes and programs we offer to local businesses that need the training," he continued. "We'll actually go to their offices and hold the training for them. It's a lot easier to go to them than for them to get everyone to come here (to the Y)."

Fitness is also a big program.

"Move to Lose is one of our most popular programs," Paulin said. "You have a team of people who have a (fitness) goal. We run (the program) a couple of times a year. We assign the teams one of our personal trainers who runs them through a multitude of workouts. We have a banquet at the end of the year with the teams from all the branch Y's where we bring together all those who take part to share their success stories.

"We generally have 30 to 50 teams with anywhere from three to eight people a team. The Move to Lose isn't just about weight loss, but about lifestyle. It's real easy to motivate each other because they're part of our community. They're just like you and me. We have some body builders who come here, but it's mostly the middle-of-the-roaders who maybe have never worked out before. It's just a real comfortable for people to come here and work out."

The Y also houses the Silver Sneakers.

"The Silver Sneakers is a program for seniors where they go through their insurance for a fitness program," Paulin continued. "It's tremendously successful here. We offer nine classes a week including aerobics - both water and land.

"We're at 700-plus as far as our membership enrollment goes and we get 3,000 to 4,000 visits a month from our Silver Sneaker members.

Paulin said that, with the YMCA of Greater Dayton, joining the Y is very flexible and wide spread.

"It's a very valuable asset," Paulin said of the entire Y organization. "With today's struggles with work, to work, it's no longer where people say 'I'm going to Kettering and get a job'. Now, you're down in Springboro or up in North Dayton. With the YMCA of Greater Dayton, you join one branch, you are set.

"With all the branches we have, it's nothing but an asset to go to one of the 12 branches - Camp Kern is also part of the Y - and there is no discrepancy. You might be a member of South Y, but you have full rein at the other branches. That includes programs. You get the same price as if you go to Coffman or Huber Heights or now Greene County's Y's in Xenia, Beavercreek and Fairborn."

The YMCA has grown a lot since South Y was built in the early 1960s. At that time, it was an organization just for males. Many Y's had sleeping rooms where travelers could stay.

"That's a lot of history that people don't know," Paulin said. "It was a long time ago. It was just men, people coming through town - it was a cheap place to stay.

It was a lot different, for sure."

Now, the co-ed Y has programs for everyone.

"We want to expand out to the community a little more," Paulin said. "When you come here for one of our programs, you're going to have a fantastic experience, whether it's sports or if it's just like the seniors hanging around in the kitchen in the back. We really work hard to make sure those experiences are good."

The cost of belonging to the Y is based on income, from $47 a month for families with a gross annual household income of $0-$34,999, to $67 a month for a family with a gross annual household income of $65,000 and up.

"We're a not-for-profit organization and we don't turn anyone who wants to join away for financial reasons," Paulin said. "We gave out over a quarter of a million dollars in financial assistance for membership, swim lessons, sports, day camp, for people who can't afford it. Our real goal is to let the people in our community know that.

"A lot of people may belong to a rec-center because it might cost less. Yeah, it does for certain things," he continued. "But we try to include everything we have. If you're a member here, you are able to swim, you can take aerobic classes, use the fitness center, the gym, that's all included.

"And we're month-to-month (membership). We don't have six-month or one-year contracts. Because we are who we are, we have to be better. You have to get out of this place what you want or you can leave. We take that to heart. That's why we know people's names when they come through the front door, come to the desk. That's why we know their families. We say 'hi'. We especially know their kids who are in those programs."

There are also volunteer opportunities, too.

"We have certain instances of working with schools," Paulin said. "We need volunteers to do what we do. But what we really started to focus on is going to the schools and saying 'Look, we know your kids need volunteer hours. That can be officiating a sport, or reading to our preschool kids, or just coming and volunteering during one of our other programs like Breakfast with Santa'. We have a group of teenagers whose entire thing is about giving back to the community. They volunteer to going out. They go on a mission trip every year. They've gone to California to Minnesota.

"That's what we're wanting to team with the schools to do. Teens are a big part of what we do."