Good morning,
I pray the day finds you well.
It seems like yesterday, well maybe the day before, that I first started working at the YMCA in 2006. The years have flown by and all of a sudden I am at the end. I will be retiring on June 20th, 2025.
Words cannot express my gratitude and deep appreciation for each and every one of you. Being allowed to work alongside you has been an honor and a humbling experience.
Over the years we have had our share of challenges and successes. We have watched our association sell off assets, and we have lived through four CEOs, along with numerous executive-level leaders. We lived through Covid, we lived through four different presidents along with many other politicians. All while continuing to do good work and make positive impacts in our communities.
I have been pondering my time at the Y and all the good work we have done. So often I have heard how many swim lessons we have given, or how many meals we have served. We have talked about how many kids we have had in our summer camps and after-school enrichment camps. How many lives have been improved by our active older adult classes? But I would like to suggest a different point of view, a different perspective if you will.
Have you ever pondered this: We will never know.
We will never know how many kids did not drown because we gave out free swim lessons. A skill these kids would never have had if we didn’t do this for free, simply because their parents/guardians could not afford it.
We will never know how many kids and families did not suffer the pangs of hunger because we gave them something to eat.
We will never know how many kids didn't have something bad happen to them after school in the time between being released from school and their parents coming home from work because we took care of them during the time in between.
We will never know how many older adults did not die an earlier death simply because we had active older adult classes.
We will never know how many people did not commit suicide because we battled loneliness and social isolation through our programs.
We will never know how many people are not only still alive but thriving because we gave them a place to belong.
We will never know.
I know there are some of you out there thinking, "Roger don't be so dramatic. I'm sure that most of those people would be just fine anyway." Well, if you want to find out, just stop providing all those programs and watch the numbers rise. Listen to the grieving parent talk about the child they won't be able to hold anymore. Listen to the caregiver talk about finding their elderly parent dead on the floor in the living room. Hear the stories of families becoming homeless because they had to choose between food for their kids and paying rent.
Oh Roger, there you go again being all dramatic again.
Maybe so, but I do have to ask the question; Am I the only chaplain who has done a welfare check and found an elderly person dead on their floor. Am I the only chaplain who sat with a grieving mother after she found out her daughter had drowned? Am I the only chaplain consoling a family after their loved one committed suicide?
Where do you think these programs came from, thin air? No, they came out of a need that was not being filled in the community.
The YMCA did this.
You did this.
You are the YMCA, never forget that.
And never forget the importance of your work and your mission.
I am at the sunset of my career, you still have a mission to accomplish, and it is this.
To put the Christian principles of love, Respect, Honesty, responsibility, and Service into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all.
I am retiring, but I know I am leaving an organization that I love in the best hands there are, and those hands belong to you.
Till we meet again.
Roger
