Reflecting on the Past Two Months

In just over 2 months of opening our doors to our community, I now look back with awe and amazement with what we have done. The weeks have passed quickly and preparing to open our facility seems like such a long time ago. On reflection, here is what stands out:

• Our staff working 6 days a week for several weeks prior to opening and how much I worried when I could see that everyone was physically tired - yet, no one complained as we all shared in the anticipation of what was to be.
• Tours, tours and more tours - it got to the point that we wore sneakers to work and we often left our daily work to act as a tour guide.
• A donor reception where we all could feel just how proud everyone was of what we accomplished.
• Opening day - unreal, unbelievable and unlike anything I've ever seen in more than 20 years in the YMCA. Bumper to bumper people filled our hallways and the activity was really something to experience.
• Becoming the 3rd largest branch in Delaware in just 2 weeks of operating.
• Tweaking, adding, explaining, problem-solving and planning and we're still not completely finished with program hours and offerings. Though we've done a lot of great things here, we know we have more to do.
• Watching the cardio kick-boxing class in the gym - more than 80 participants in one class at one time - you can feel the energy just by watching through the doorway
• Kids running ahead of their parents to get in the Y - knowing they plan to have fun while they're here
• A grand opening celebration party just for our members - everyone loved the event
• And...we turned around just one month later with another celebration for our Healthy Kids Day
• Youth sports on our own fields and in our own gym - it's a true gift!
• Swimming lessons, lap swimming, Body Pump, youth wellness, youth sports, Kids Zone, yoga, kick-boxing, personal training, Spinning, volleyball, basketball, arthritis class, Boot Camp, school-age child care and school age vacation programs, hydropump, LIFE, day camp and kids, and parents and young adults and families and seniors - it's all happening daily in this building.

Just 9 weeks into operating this facility and I feel so fortunate to be part of a terrific staff team, to work in such a beautiful facility, to talk with folks of all shapes, ages, sizes and backgrounds and as we continue to serve our community and members, I am reminded daily that blessings are easy to see.

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.

Group Exercise Classes - Expanded! Body Pump Added

The interest and demand have been great for our group exercise classes. With our opening week last week and including this week, we provided demo classes so that our members get to know our instructors and get a feel for what we will offer. Beginning Monday, March 3, we are adding the following:

• Monday: Total Body Conditioning - 6 :00 am- 6:55 am

Learn to Spin 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm

• Tuesday: Pilates - 11:30 am - 12:15 pm

Spinning - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Pilates - 7:00 pm - 7:45 pm

• Wednesday: Spinning - 6:00 am - 6:55 am

Spinning - 9:15 am - 10:15 am

Core Challenge - 10:30 am - 11:25 am

Spinning - 6:30 pm - 7:25 pm

Basic Step - 7:30 pm - 8:00 pm

• Thursday: Spinning - 11:30 am - 12:15 pm
• Friday: 20/20/20 - 5:30 pm - 6:25 pm
• Saturday: Mommy and Me Yoga - 10:15 am - 11:30 am

Effective on Monday, March 17 - All Classes Entitled Total Body Conditioning (with the exception of the Tuesday offering at 5:00 pm) will become known as Body Pump.

This just means that the formal name will change to Body Pump with the exception of the Tuesday class. The day and time slot will remain the same.

Please keep checking our web site for further updates and all changes will be posted on information boards in the facility. In addition, copies of the updated schedule will be available at our member service desk.

Feeback on our First Official Week

WOW - what an incredible first week of operations within our new facility! As many of you know, we opened on Monday, February 18, which was not only our opening day, but a holiday as well. Additionally, the weather was just perfect for folks to check out our YMCA. We are estimating that we had at least 4,000 people in and out of our building that day and we did our very best to manage an incredible crowd.

We all welcome your feedback as we want to provide excellence in member service. I know that we'll have bumps along the way, but we're working toward improving whatever we can in the short term.

We have had several questions and comments arise this past week and I want to be sure to address them here:

• Will we be adding additional classes? We are reviewing our offerings and as we grow, we will offer additional classes as necessary.
• I am a member of another YMCA, can I use your facility? If you are a full member of another YMCA that is at least 50 miles from our facility, you may use our facility for free whenever you visit. If your home YMCA is within 50 miles of our facility, you will be asked to pay half of the guest fee and may visit up to 5 times within one year. Please bring ID with you when visiting.
• I have noticed that some people have entered the building and have not been scanned and I am concerned about security. All people entering the building should be scanned at the facility access point. We are going to work harder to ensure that people coming into our building have their membership cards scanned.
• Will you be expanding the hours for the youth wellness center and for Kids Zone? Once we get through our opening period (our first 2 weeks) and we're in to a couple weeks of our classes, we are going to review our scheduling for programs and services.
• The building seems crowded and I had to wait with my family to use the pool, will this be the norm? We are the first new YMCA in Delaware in 40 years, so we assumed there would be some crowding in our first few weeks. Many people couldn't wait for us to open and it's clear that there is incredible excitement. Though we expect to be a busy YMCA, we also expect things to settle down once the "newness" wears off and we begin our program schedule (March 3). We reached capacity in our pool twice this week and we must adhere to safety first. When we reach pool capacity, we will alert those in the pool that they are on a time limit and then permit another group of people in as capacity lessens.

Thank you all for being part of our Bear-Glasgow YMCA family. It's been a very exciting week and we look forward to the weeks that lie ahead. I will update this blog routinely, but feel free to call or email me directly at Vsiktar@ymcade.org if you have specific thoughts or questions. Take the best of care and have a great day!