News

Greendale Family Branch

Last week all of Traditional and Wee Wuns Camps at the Greendale Branch were invited to a play at the Bancroft school across the street. With Nancy Boland’s help the arrangements were made that all 104 children would go on a walking field trip to attend the school’s theatre group play entitled Cinderella. Sue asked if the older campers in the Seeker and Adventurers camps could buddy up with a young child from the Wee Wuns group. The older campers were very excited to be given this awesome responsibility. They took this responsibility very seriously and were excited to become a role model for these children. The children responded enthusiastically that they were “friends” with a big kid. The trip was a huge success and the older campers expressed “how cool” it was to be given this opportunity.

This activity emphasized the need to work together and be responsible for each other. All of the “chaperones” received kindness coins for their willingness to help others in a mature, responsible manner. When asked what they thought of assisting a younger camper the reply was, “that was cool”. It was a “win, win” situation for all.

Central Community Branch

… we were able to ease the burden of a family visiting Worcester.  They weren’t here on vacation; they are staying in Worcester because one of their children has cancer and receives treatment in the city.  What do parents do, in a strange city, spending all their time in hospitals – with the sick child’s sibling?  Do THEY spend all day in hospital waiting rooms?  NO!  That’s where the Y and the Notre Dame Pediatric Palliative Care Program come together.  Notre Dame PPC is a not-for-profit agency providing care to terminally ill children and the Central Community Branch is the “camp option” for siblings of children battling cancer.  Through the YMCA’s Annual Fund we are able to provide scholarships to these families – and this week Suelena, aged 5, had the opportunity to “just be a kid” for a while.  We’re for Social Responsibility.

Boroughs Family Branch

We are for Healthy Living: The second LiveSTRONG group has begun with six new cancer survivors participating.  Everyone is enthusiastic to learn about the benefit of physical activity and excited to have the support of staff and peers.

One woman has shown exceptional strength and heart in their short time together.  This woman has had cancer for a few years and the disease is still very active in her body.  Her treatment has been hard and has affected her mobility to the point where on most days she has trouble making it to the end of her driveway to gather her mail. In spite of these challenges she is determined to improve her body physically and emotionally through the LiveSTRONG program.  During her wellness orientation she came in determined as ever and walked a mile on the indoor track which she hasn’t done in years.

She continues to persevere and push forward as she has many goals left to accomplish. Her top two focuses are to attend some important family functions over the next year, to get to walk in the Jimmy Fund walk in September and simply to feel better and stronger.  She has been an inspiration to everyone in the group in the short time they have been meeting, her strength and that of the other participants is amazing and when you couple that with the passion of the folks working with the survivors each week you can see a definitive impact.

Greendale Family Branch

One of our campers last week, Abdullah, had a rough start to our summer camp program. We quickly discovered that Abdullah didn’t speak much English (his primary language is Portuguese). His parent’s had requested that he and his siblings be placed in different groups so that they all could practice overcoming the language barrier. Regardless of being only six years old, Abdullah joined our older camp group called the Seekers (8 & 9 year old group), so that he wouldn’t be grouped with one of his siblings.

Confused by some of our activities, separated from his siblings and trying to overcome the language obstacle, Abdullah became overwhelmed and upset on his first day of camp. Even with great efforts from his counselors, Abdullah only spent his time with one other camper named Diego. The next day, one of his counselors, Kim Conrad, noticed that Abdulla’s only friend Diego was absent. Instantly, Kim took aside two other campers, Yaa and Anna. These two campers had been wonderful all week. Yaa and Anna were excited about our camp activities, always eager to listen, cooperate with staff and were kind to their fellow campers.  Kim informed the campers about Abdullah’s struggles and asked them to help assist her in making Abdullah have a great camp experience. Both campers were eager to help.

All day, Kim observed the campers as they took Abdullah under their wings. The girls asked him questions, ate with him, held his hand to guide him to activities, and checked up with Kim every now and then excitedly saying, “We think he’s having fun!”  It warmed Kim’s heart to see these campers reaching out so happily and selflessly, that before the day was over, she had presented each of the girls with a “Caring” Value Necklace, which they couldn’t have worn more proudly.

Boroughs Family Branch

We are for Healthy Living: Fifty YMCA Active Older Adults headed to Boston with Fox Tours for a lovely day cruising the Charles.  These seniors are regulars at our Cardio Circuit, MSROM and Senior Cycling classes.  In addition to their normal exercise routines, they all seem to find a little time to socialize over coffee while they are here at the Y.  The beauty of this trip was that it allowed members to connect on a more relaxed level – without the sense of urgency to rush off to their normal class.   Some of the members brought guests including family members.   Their adult children particularly enjoyed getting a chance to meet the staff who spends so much time keeping their parents healthy and active.  One daughter even joked that it was nice to get to know Kristen, the instructor who keeps her mother’s legs so strong!  It was a nice opportunity to relax with old friends while connecting with new ones.

At the Y we believe in building the health and well-being of our members and community.  It is enjoyable when we can take time out of our busy days to become better acquainted and be grateful for the wonderful relationships that exist at the Y.