YMCA Love...Incase You Missed It!

CCY

Last May I got to experience my first CCY. CCY stands for the Coalition of Campus Y's. It is a fancy way of saying people from Campus YMCA chapters across the United States get together once a year. We do not have representatives that participate in every single Campus Y, but that is not to say that we don't have a pretty amazing, well rounded, group.

Every year the CCY meets a different school hosts. This past May LU and Wash U Campus Y shared the responsibility of hosting. Our conference lasts four days. They are four days of fellowship, service, and a reconnection with the YMCA.

Being new to the YMCA this was great for me. I loved that the problems or struggles I was experiencing in my Y were similar to other people's issues. They were able to give me advice. We broke into groups and we wrote everything down. We figured out what was important to us. We listed the causes that we felt were important. We talked a lot about social justice, and about homelessness and poverty.


Sometimes when we are a part of something we can lose sight of what is important. We are so caught up in the motions that we forget why we are really involved. I am part of the YMCA because I want to help others. I love the idea of an organization that helps me do this. CCY was a reminder to myself, this is what I love.

Science Can Be Fun...

The Campus YMCA seems to really love to help and mentor youth. Our Y Catalyst program is no different. The Campus Y provides an after school program at a local YMCA site where we teach the kids about science.

LU's Campus YMCA is paired with Immanuel Lutheran School right here in St. Charles. Immanuel provides a YMCA after school program. Once a week our Campus Y volunteers head over to Immanuel and work with the kids on a science experiment for that week. Usually we meet for about an hour and it gives the kids something different to look forward to then their normal routine.

The after school program consists of children from ages 6-12, which is really diverse age group. We try to do experiments that are easy enough for the young ones, and challenging enough for the older ones.


There are all different experiments we have done with the kids, but my favorites are always the ones that are experiments that are very interactive. One that the kids really loved was when we put milk in a round dish, then we added drops of food coloring in different places in the milk. Then we put a drop of dish soap on the end of a Q-tip, and touched the Q-tip to the color droplet in the milk. When this happens the milk and colors start to move and the kids were able to make some cool designs.

Afterward, we ask them to think about the experiment. Why they thought the milk and color drops moved? Would the experiment be different with different milk? Our goal is to interact with the kids, but to also encourage them to think. Sometimes learning from a college student is different then their science teacher they see everyday.

It is awesome for us to mentor to them and to encourage learning.

When the Campus YMCA has fundraisers some of our money goes to this program as well, because we provide all of our own material for us and the kids every week.

"Hey Coach, Hey Coach!"

So, maybe sitting down with kids talking isn't your thing. Maybe you aren't really sure about "going green," and you need your spring break to go home. BUT, you LOVE sports, right?!?! I mean you are at Lindenwood...

The Campus YMCA offers a little program we like to call Y Coaches. Being the amazing athletes we are the Campus Y volunteers love coaching little kids.


Currently, LU's Campus Y is connected with the O'Fallon YMCA helping coach their youth sports. Our volunteers right now are helping coach basketball. They meet once a week for practice and depending on the week will meet on a Saturday for a game.



Connecting with kids can sometimes be difficult but many of us have that love for sports. You can be that mentor for a child that really needs it. We don't know what goes on for these kids when they aren't at practice, but we do know that during that hour or two they are with us we can make an impact.

The Campus Y has a great group of Y Coaches volunteers and their excitement and enthusiasm for the kids is incredible to watch.

Do You Remember That Person YOU Looked Up To?

We all (well hopefully) have had those awesome people in our lives who we have have admired. I mean the person that you could look at and say "they are the example." The person that really seemed to have their life together and was able to mentor you in one way or another. It could have been a teacher, coach, or even just a friend that was maybe a couple years older.

One of the great programs that the Campus YMCA offers is the Big Brothers Big Sisters program it is very similar to the traditional Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program except it is geared toward young people, generation y, helping mentor others. The BBBS program offered through the Y is a site-based program.


Basically, instead of taking your little sister or brother out to a public place you meet them at their school, in the Campus Y's case we meet at Barnwell Middle. Usually the Big and Little will meet during the Little's elective course or lunch. Sometimes you will play games, or sometimes you will just talk.

The school that the Little attends recommends children that might be in need of a mentor in their life. Sometimes, it is to help the child socially, sometimes the school might know of a rough home situation where just another person in their life that they can look up to is needed. After the parents approval the child is enrolled in the program and is matched with a Big.


From there the relationship grows. It is another example of gen Y giving back...through the Y.

Y Free The TREES!

Can we go green?!?! Please?!?!

This is the second school year that the Campus YMCA has had its recycling program on campus. Currently, we are only able to do paper recycling, however we do have a bin! The YMCA has a paper bin behind the Spirit Shoppe. Okay, so it isn't the best location, but we have it! We have paper recycling located in all academic buildings on campus.

The YMCA is often paired with the Natural Science Club here on campus because we are both trying, and I mean trying to convince the university to go green.

Currently, we are supporting the Natural Science Club as they try to get campus wide recycling of all kinds here. It is a work in progress.

There have been several members of the YMCA who have taken it upon themselves to set up recycling bins for other things such as plastics and glass in their dorms. We then take this to our Campus YMCA house, where our graduate assistant, takes it to her house in Kirkwood where it is picked up and recycled.


Yes, it'd be easier if there were more recycling on campus...but it is changing...slowly...
As the video on the Media Talk said, "They [gen y]are environmentally conscious, peace loving. They volunteer in record numbers." We are a generation making a difference through things like being environmentally friendly.

One of My Favorites!

The Campus YMCA's are across the country. We all offer something different, but we all have one program in common. Alternative Spring Break (ASB).

ASB, is when a group of students go to a place where there is need in some way. We don't have a particular place that we go every year. When LU's Campus YMCA first started their trip for several years was going to Mississippi and working doing hurricane Katrina relief. For two years the Campus Y went not during Spring Break but during J-term.


In the spring of 2008 LU's Campus Y took 10 volunteers to the Lake of the Ozarks, right here in Missouri. Many people don't think of the lake as being a place in need, but when it is not a tourist season the city is really different.


The volunteers slept on the floor of a local church that hosted them during their week stay. The group worked doing lake clean up, trash clean up in local areas, and also did yard work for some elderly members of the church. When the group wasn't cleaning, they helped with youth activities at the church as a mentoring program.

In the Spring of 2009, LU will take six volunteers to Cincinnati, OH for spring break. While there the group will work with an organization that helps with poverty and homelessness in the Cincinnati area.

The YMCA tries to make these trips affordable to all students. A majority of the Campus YMCA fundraisers go toward the ASB. This helps pay for fees, gas, insurance, etc.

The next LU Campus YMCA fundraiser, will be on Wednesday December 17th. The Campus YMCA will provide a lunch of donated foods from local restaurants for the LU staff since the cafe will be closed.

Where it all started....

Since I am doing my blog about the YMCA I think I will start with why it has been so important to me. I joined Lindenwood Campus YMCA immediately when I transferred to Lindenwood my sophomore year of college. I had met this girl named Jessica over the summer before I transferred to LU and she told me about the YMCA. She told me it was a service organization on campus that was completely student run. I was looking for a way to meet people and it was a bonus that in the midst of that I had an opportunity to help others.

So, it began. I joined the Campus YMCA work and learn and slowly but surely got to know everyone. The Campus YMCA is different then your local YMCA. Our motto on our shirt is "No Pool, No Gym, Just Service" because that is what we are about. The Campus Y is new to Lindenwood, this only being its 5th year in operation.

LU Campus YMCA and Washington University Campus YMCA are often paired together, because we are run by the same director. In many ways the Wash U Campus Y is a brother/sister relationship for us. We invite each other to events and if we need advice we call on one another. We are a family. Not just our different branches, but the YMCA in general.

We all have the same passion in life. Helping others. Through the YMCA I have been able to develop, not only in leadership abilities and learning how to work as a non-profit organization, but as a person. The YMCA instills strong values and have helped me with my own character development.

Everyday with the YMCA is a learning experience. I meet people in all walks of life somehow involved, that inspire me. I know the YMCA impacts me, but I am not alone...Campus YMCA's affect us...Gen Y.

YMCA Love