Blog #7

The following days, we headed to the Y around 7:00 AM. He toured me around the building and taught me its rich history. The YMCA we were at (Huntington Ave) was the first YMCA built in America. Europeans brought the concept of the YMCA over from Europe over a hundred years ago and established it for the first time in the states in Boston. He also taught me how the memberships work at the Y. He told me that it is a need-based system: if you can pay more for a membership, you pay more; if you can not pay at all or much, then you do not have to. The money they make from memberships goes right back into the work they do, and part of that is covering the memberships of those who do not have the ability to pay for the Y’s services. When he was touring me around, he taught me about all of the different things they have at the Y. He showed me classrooms where they hold sessions to teach people who need it, and actually, right now, those rooms and the teen center are being used to help newcomers from Haiti. Because of things going on in their country, many people from Haiti have been coming to the United States, and while services provide housing at night for many of these people, some places do not let them stay during the day. So, the YMCA has become a safe haven for these people where they can live during the day and take care of their families. Mr. Shapiro also showed me the daycare they have, their basketball gym, their amazing workout area, and their pool. These services are dedicated for the use of people in the community who need or want them. I also helped Mr. Shapiro tour a man he was meeting to talk about potentially getting involved with work at the Y, and I talked a lot and learned from Lauren Wapshare, Mr. Shapiro’s co-worker and assistant. She gave me more tasks to do to help around the office, and my main task for most of a whole day was folding over 150 T-shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeves, sweaters, and jackets. I then sorted them into packages for employees at many different YMCAs around Boston and freed up time for people who really needed more time to work on their other responsibilities. One important lesson I learned from that task is that serving the community does not always mean donating money and making deals to help the world. A lot of it is folding, sorting, cleaning, and doing tasks that others will not or that can help others who need to work on the other parts of service. Overall, it was an incredible experience, and I am so grateful!

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