Children... So Important

In the annual performance review that the Board of Directors does with me, we talked about the successes and misses from the last year. Fortunately, we had many more successes than misses!

One of the biggest successes was the installation of heat pumps in the rooms used by our camps and childcare programs, which kept our children cool during the increasingly hot summer days.

Sometimes I forget how important the simple things are, like having a comfortable place to play.

Another success was the partnership we had with the Belfast Soup Kitchen to provide lunches for our any camper who needed it. I know you heard about this in June, when we were told that the Federal lunch children's lunch program we had been using would no longer be available for all of our campers. The community responded! Thank you! With your help, the immediate partnership from the Belfast Soup Kitchen, and special emergency grants from the Hannaford Foundation and Downeast Credit Union, we were able to maintain the program. (When I called Cherie at the BSK to ask if she would help provide lunches for children in camp, she didn't ask questions, but said "Yes" immediately. I asked, "Do you want to know the details?" She told me, "I will, but we will do it. Children have to eat.") Because of the delicious lunches provided by the BSK, we had more children than ever signing up for their healthy offerings.

Children have been a focus of our Y since its first days as a conduit for a local swim team to join the YMCA Swim League and they will always be a cornerstone of our efforts.

This fall, we are partnering with the Maine CDC to start a support group for new and expecting mothers, "Bumps and Babies". We know the impact the months before a child is born have and how important the first years are. And we also know that they are hard! This group will give mothers a chance to learn from the experiences of others, share their own, and get resources they may not have otherwise known about.

This Sunday, we have the Child Shall Lead Color Run followed by a family barbeque. Larry and Sharon Jones, early proponents and supporters of the WCY started this many years ago and keep it going now. You can register a child or a full family for a fun race around our campus complete with cornstarch based colors flying all over. It's a great time!

Many of you have attended our Trunk or Treat celebration, where volunteers fill the parking lot with "Trunks" full of treats. (Yes!... candy at the Y! This is about community, not calories!) This year, it will happen on October 19th. We already have more than 30 volunteers with trunks and expect at least ten more. Waterfall Arts will be there with the Great Pumpkin Pageant and Matthews Brothers has promised to bring their haunted trailer again! It is so much fun and a great chance to trial run costumes!

We are also partnering with E-motion Movement Communities again to offer a grief support group which will start later in October. If you know someone who might be interested, please email me  with their information so that I can reach out to them.

I know this is a different than other newsletters: a little less philosophical and more about what we do here. That's because there is so much here to talk about. (Can't navel gaze every day!) It's all underpinned by a wish to keep this community strong and connected to each other, as we have been doing for 48 years. We hold these events to bring people together and break down the internal barriers of self-doubt as well as external ones of distrust. These are the same reasons we hold exercise classes, offer AOA luncheons, and run a swim team: to promote physical, mental, social, and spiritual development. They remind us that when we care for others, we are doing good for ourselves.

Thank you for being part of this community. It is clear to me there is no place like this place.