Our Teens in Action this Weekend at Legislative Hall

Aside from the typical work of the YMCA in the wellness center, swimming pool, Kids Zone, youth wellness center or group exercise room, we have a special program happening this weekend in Dover. Our Bear-Glasgow Family YMCA is represented by 5 of our teens in the YMCA Youth in Government program.

Youth in Government is a national YMCA program that occurs in approximately 40 of our states across the country. The program is a model of the state legislative process and includes election of officers, cabinet appointments, bill writing, debate, a press corp, a banquet and a closing ceremony. The main purpose is to allow our teens to have a hands-on experience in the legislative process. Bill topics have ranged from penalties for seat belt use, revamping the education process, curfews, corporal punishment in schools, speed limit penalties and many bills model some of the debate currently occurring in our Delaware legislature.

We are quite proud to support this program and look to grow our branch representation in future years. Youth in Government educates, builds character and tolerance, provides an outlet for bill authoring and most importantly provides a positive experience for teens. It's a great example of how the YMCA helps to build strong kids.

Just What is Character in the YMCA?

By now, many of you may have read or heard about character values in the YMCA, but I suspect most folks aren't quite sure of why colors are linked to the values and how does it really apply within the YMCA.



In the mid 1990's, YMCA of the USA felt it was important that we all re-focus on character within our local YMCA communities. Though there are many values associated with integrity and character, four core values were chosen to model throughout our YMCA movement. The four selected are: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Some Y's have added faith and service to the list.



To more easily remember each value, colors were linked with each and they are:

Caring - red - as it comes from the heart

Honesty - blue - "true blue"

Respect - gold - like the golden rule

Responsibility - green - taking care of the environment/area around you



YMCAs across the country, including our Y's in Delaware, have promoted character development in camp programs, wellness challenges, before and after school care, swimming lessons and special events.



However, character values go beyond our programs. Each one of our interactions should be done with character in mind. Whether it's enforcing a rule or policy, disciplining an employee, listening to member's input, conducting staff meetings, interviewing potential staff or board members or even problem-solving dificult situations, we must keep character in the forefront of all we do. It helps define us as an organization and helps build strong kids, families and communities.



As we "grow older" in this branch, though we're just in week 5 of operations, you'll begin to witness character in action throughout the facility. I hope you'll be part of that action.



Thank you for being a member of our Bear-Glasgow Family YMCA!

Please Secure your Valuables

As nice as our building is, as friendly as our members are, as caring as our staff tries to be, we unfortunately have individuals who attempt to ruin a good thing. I write with some anger and disappointment that we have had a few thefts in our parking lot and one in our men's locker room. In all cases, credit cards were taken. Please be sure to secure your valuables - out of sight if you leave them in your cars and please lock your valuables while in our building. Please remember that we have lock boxes also available for your use.

We will now go to the expense of cameras in our parking lock to deter this problem. We are meeting early next week and will have cameras installed ASAP. If any of you observe suspicious behavior, please alert our staff or call the police immediately. It is unfortunate that we have this type of behavior, but such is the world these days.

Thanks everybody and have a good weekend.

Upgrades to Kids Zone and our Youth Wellness Center

We are now in our 3rd week of operation and are already making changes within our program areas to improve our service. We are adding hours to our Kids Zone and Youth Wellness Center and have noted those changes below in bold. These changes are effective immediately.

Kids Zone- Hours of Operation

• The time limit is now 80 minutes instead of the 60 minute limit
• Monday - Friday hours are: 8:00 am to 12:30 pm
• Saturday hours are: 8:00 am to 12 noon.

Youth Wellness Center - Hours of Operation

• Monday -Friday: 3:00 pm to 8:30 pm
• Saturday: 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
• Sunday: 12 noon to 3:00

I know these changes will be helpful to many of you and thank you all for your interest and comments.