Worcester Fitness in the Parks is a free, 11-week program presented by the City of Worcester Department of Health & Human Services and Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA in partnership with the YWCA Central Massachusetts and YMCA of Central Massachusetts. The program runs from June 15 through August 29, Mondays through Saturdays at 7 locations.

The goal of this program is to provide Worcester residents with opportunities to engage in healthy eating, active living, community building and spending the Summer becoming a healthier Worcester. We hope to see you there!

Schedules, Locations, and Registration

Download Fitness in the Parks flyer

Highlights: 

• 11 Week Program
• 13 Classes Each Week
• 7 Sites Throughout Worcester
• Classes for Everyone in the Family
• Free Fitness Program 

So, are you and your children confident around water? Let’s make water safety a priority and embrace the invaluable gift of learning to swim, ensuring every splash is a happy and secure one!

The YMCA of Central Massachusetts has teamed up with the City of Worcester to provide FREE water safety swim lessons at a variety of pools and ponds in Worcester. This FREE program is being offered to all interested in the Worcester community.

The goal of this program is to teach participants basic water safety, drowning prevention skills, and to be more comfortable and confident in and around water.

Ages 5 and up. Parents must stay for the entire 30 minute class.

Teen and Adult lessons are also available.

Bell Pond Information
(190 Belmont Street, Worcester, MA)

English – Bell Pond Info Flyer

Español – Bell Pond Folleto

Coes Pond Beach Information
(225 Mill Street, Worcester, MA)

English – Coes Pond Info Flyer

Español – Coes Pond Folleto

Crompton Pool Information
(47 Quinsigamond Ave., Worcester, MA)

English – Crompton Pool Info Flyer

Español – Crompton Pool Folleto

Shore Park Information
(115 Shore Drive, Worcester, MA)

English – Shore Park Info Flyer

Español – Shore Park Folleto 

The program starts on July 6th. Click a link below to register. 

Bell Pond Registration 

Coes Pond Beach Registration

Crompton Pool Registration

Shore Park Registration 

Questions?
Contact Karin Anderson, Association Senior Aquatics Director, for more info:
kanderson@ymcaofcm.org
(P) 774.778.5952

The process is easy! First click the link below. Then choose either the Kids and Education category, or the Sports and Fitness category. Click Nominate under the Y logo, fill-in your info, then click nominate one last time. Your participation even puts you in the running to win a $250 gift card!

Nominate us, learn more, and read the official rules HERE 

The Worcester Business Journal’s Power 100 isn’t a list of the people who hold the most power in the Central Massachusetts economy. It’s a list of the people who most effectively wield their power to have outsized influence on the region.

We are proud to celebrate David’s visionary leadership, his unwavering commitment to community, and the impact he continues to create across Central Massachusetts.

Learn more HERE

Worcester, MA — May 12, 2026 — The YMCA of Central Massachusetts celebrated leadership, service and community impact during its 162nd Annual Meeting held on April 29, 2026, recognizing outgoing leaders, welcoming new members to its Board of Directors and honoring Kimberly Anderson with the George I. Alden Award.

The event brought together YMCA staff, volunteers, members and community partners to reflect on the Y’s continued commitment to strengthening community through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

“We are grateful for the dedicated leaders who help advance the Y’s mission every day,” said David Connell, President and CEO of the YMCA of Central Massachusetts. “Our board members and volunteers play a vital role in ensuring that everyone in our community has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive.”

New Board Members

The YMCA officially welcomed the following individuals to its Board of Directors:

• Carrie Farrell, Senior Vice President, Human Resources at The Hanover Insurance Group
• Sean M. Harris, Director of Community Engagement at Quinsigamond Community College
• Oksana Y. Lukasheva, Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance at The Hanover Insurance Group
• Benjamin Shipp, North County Board of Governors Board Chair, Assistant Vice President Member Service Center at All One Credit Union

These leaders will help guide the organization’s strategic vision and community impact efforts throughout their term of service.

Award Recognition

During the meeting, the YMCA presented the George I. Alden Award to Kimberly Anderson of Shrewsbury, SVP and CFO of Milford Federal Bank in recognition of her outstanding commitment to the YMCA and the community.

Kimberly has provided visionary financial leadership and steadfast volunteer service to the YMCA of Central Massachusetts, helping guide the organization through some of its most significant and complex moments for more than a decade.

“Kim embodies the very best of volunteer leadership,” said John W. “Bill” Braley III, Chair of the Board of Directors. “She brings integrity, compassion and steady guidance to every conversation, and our YMCA is stronger because of her service.”

The Annual Meeting also highlighted the YMCA’s impact over the past year, presented scholarships to two local teens with the Nance Ware Scholarship, honored Webster Five Cents Savings Bank with the Strengthening Foundations of Community Award, and presented Erika Burrows, CEO of the Center of Hope in Southbridge with the George Vasil Community Service Award honoring her work for the community of Southbridge.

The YMCA remains committed to creating welcoming spaces where all people can connect, belong and thrive.

About the YMCA 

Driven by its founding mission, the YMCA of Central Massachusetts has served the community by empowering young people, improving health and well-being, and inspiring action in and across 70 communities in Central Massachusetts. The Y nurtures the potential of every child and teen, improves the nation’s health and well-being and provides opportunities to give back and support neighbors. or more information, visit www.ymcaofcm.org.

Mission In Motion is an Association-Wide, Fundraising Cycle-A-Thon Event to benefit LIVESTRONG® AT THE YMCA; a FREE 12 week health and well-being program for cancer survivors and their families. See your Wellness Director to register!

EVENT INFO:
• Teams of up to 5 people
• 4 hours of cycling between team members
• Raise a minimum of $500 per team
• Team name displayed on bike
• FREE Child Watch Available

LEARN MORE 

Wednesday, April 29, 2026
(5:00 – 7:00 PM)

Vue at Worcester Plaza
446 Main Street,
Worcester, MA 01608

RSVP to Carol Lucke at clucke@ymcaofcm.org

Do you have old documents piling up and want to dispose of them safely? Join Webster Five and the YMCA of Central Massachusetts for a Shred and Recycle Day! We’re working with Pellegrino Trucking to provide you with secure document destruction and disposal. Bring those old bank statements and check shredding off of your to-do list. Paper shredding is FREE. 

Need to get rid of old electronics, appliances, or bikes? The YMCA is proud to partner with Green Day Recycling. Check this list for accepted items and their cost to you: 2026 SHRED AND RECYCLE DAY PLUS FOOD DRIVE FLYER 

ALL TOWNS WELCOME! RAIN OR SHINE
HARD DRIVES DESTROYED, CASH PREFERRED, CHECKS (Over $30)

Recycling Questions? Contact: GreenDayRecyclingMA@Gmail.com 

NEW THIS YEAR!
Food donations are being encouraged for El Bueno Samaritano Food Program.
Please donate shelf stable, non-perishable food and canned goods.

Items most helpful for the food drive:

• Cereal
• Rice
• Cooking oil
• Beans (canned or dry)
• Soups
• Cookies/snacks
• Bottled water
• Pasta
• Tomato products (canned tomatoes, tomato sauce)
• Grocery gift cards

2026 SHRED AND RECYCLE DAY PLUS FOOD DRIVE FLYER 

WORCESTER – If it weren’t for the matching yellow “LIVESTRONG at the YMCA” T-shirts, they’d look likeany other workout group.

But the dozen or so adults rotating through their exercise circuit, complete with pushups and stints on the rowing machines, all have one thing in common: cancer.

Members of the group are participants in LIVESTRONG at the YMCA, a 12-week conditioning program designed to help cancer survivors or those undergoing treatment maintain and regain their strength. Through year-round fundraising efforts the program pays for a free three-month membership to the YMCA, in this case the Greendale Family Branch.

At the helm of the group is Barry Brigham, a decades-long veteran of the YMCA who has headed the Greendale program for six years.

Most of the people at the workout class on Thursday, April 16, had been there far longer than three months, choosing to pay for YMCA memberships and stay in the program.

Part of a club
As Scott Siemen, who is undergoing treatment after his cancer reappeared in January, put it, “It’s not a club you want to be a part of, but it’s a club you’re happy to be a part of.”

While all participants begin the program with varying levels of fitness, and modifications are always given to people facing specific physical limitations, Thursday’s class was no cakewalk.
Completing planks and squats and pushing the weighted sleigh across the gym floor, members sweated through the hourlong circuit.

“People don’t come here to do kumbaya, they come here to exercise,” said Warren Ferguson, a 71-year-oldsurvivor of prostate cancer.

Program members say the workouts help stave off the fatigue that the disease and many of the typical treatments can cause.

Improved sleep

“Before cancer I could survive on five or six hours of sleep,” said Ferguson, who worked as a physician at UMass Memorial Medical Center. “Afterwards, if I didn’t get a solid eight hours the day was shot.”

Ferguson said the program, which he’s participated in for several years, has helped him regain much of his former strength.

For Judy Jeon-Chapman, 67, a former bodybuilder and breast cancer survivor, LIVESTRONG at the YMCA got her back into the gym after cancer treatment dealt a blow to her confidence.

“I was afraid I was going to hurt myself,” Jeon-Chapman said, adding that she’s now discovered a whole new area of the gym and workout routine after joining the group.

Beyond the benefit of exercise, which studies say can significantly increase a cancer patient’s chance of survival, participants say the program is a place they feel understood.

Ferguson recalled a moment after he first joined the program when he overheard a participant talking about theirunease going into surveillance testing to check if their cancer had returned.

He said: “In that moment I realized it was normal to feel anxious and worried about it. Of course you know that, but there’s a part of you that says, ‘Cut it out’ or that wants to protect your family.”

In the program, participants say they don’t have to shy away from the realities of their diagnoses and treatments, which can make sometimes make people without cancer uncomfortable.

“They’re not scared by the “C word,” Jeon-Chapman said of cancer.

“[Cancer] is not something you want to talk about with just anybody.”

‘Like a scary movie’

Many participants shared a common sense of shock and disbelief after their diagnosis, followed by fear. Telling their stories in turn, they nodded knowingly at one another, hopping in with their own anecdotes about the ways their lives changed after cancer.

“The first time you hear it it’s like a scary movie,” said 70-year-old Steve Miller.

Family members told Jeon-Chapman that it was “great news” that she had a type of cancer with a high survival rate.

“They didn’t understand that it’s my peace of mind that’s gone because you don’t think it’ll happen to you especially when you’re healthy,” she said.

While talking openly about their histories and anxieties is helpful, the support participants provide each other is often unspoken, they said.

“It’s wonderful to hear peoples’ stories but you don’t have to talk about it. There’s common ground there even if you’re just rowing next to someone,” said Colleen McGuiness, a survivor of appendix cancer.

“LIVESTRONG takes the loneliness out of cancer,” said Ferguson.

Mission in Motion, a cycling event, is the next fundraising event for LIVESTRONG at the YMCA.

Learn more about LIVESTRONG at the Y

Learn More