Support Your Local YMCA

My blog today is to tell you about some of the amazing things our Bremerton YMCA offers our community and to tell you about a fundraiser that our swim team is doing to help support our Y.

This is about the only fundraiser I let my kids participate in on a wide scale, meaning, I allow them to actively go out and ask people about supporting this particular fundraiser. I mean everyone has a fundraiser: their schools, our church, different groups, etc. It is endless. So why this one over the others?

As many of you know, we are a swim family. All of my kids have been involved with swimming since they breathed, well actually before if you want to get technical. I joined the Y in Saratoga, CA when I was expecting baby #2. Water aerobics is amazing for moms to be, you get in a great workout that is low impact and can still be high intensity. Having a mom,who exercises during pregnancy, is really great for mom and baby. So as I mentioned, my babies enjoyed the water even before their first breath. Since we are and have been at the Y so much (I mean we are literally there 5-6 days a week), I have seen first hand how the Y has helped support the youth in our community.

These are my reasons why we support the Y:

The biggest way is that they provide scholarships for youth, whose family may not be able to afford a membership. They also help with swim team fees and even help kids attend meets. It gives these kids not only have the opportunity to do something healthy, which is in itself super awesome, but they also get to be apart of a swim family. They learn honesty, caring, respect and responsibility and what it means to be a part of a team. They are encouraged, supported and challenged to do their best. Not only does this come through in swimming but it carries over into the other areas of their lives. It truly gives them a chance to become better stronger people.

The second reason and there are many in this 2nd reason, are all the other programs that this fundraiser supports. The Bremerton Y, offers ALL 3rd graders in Bremerton a chance to learn to swim through the school system. How amazing is that!?!? Again that was ALL 3rd graders, not just members. I love that our Y reaches out to the community especially since we are surrounded by water and knowing how to be safe around water couldn't be more important! Then of course there are swim lessons, camps, dance, Teen Late Night, and so much more. The thing I love most about all these programs is that it keeps the kids busy, active and involved in positive things.

Then there is the money collected for the fundraiser. Did you know that every dollar that is collected is put right back into our community, into our Y, to fund these programs? That's right!

That money stays right here and reinvests itself in our youth.

And my final reason for letting my kids do this fundraiser is because they have got to swim. They have to swim hard! They have 2 hours to swim 5000 yards or 200 lengths of the pool or the best and most that they can swim. They have to earn the money that they are raising to help support this amazing fundraiser. These kids are challenged. From the littlest kids on the team like Domini who swam 1000 yards when she was 5, to a full mile when she was 6, to who knows how much this year. . . to the kids who just hit the 5000 yards for the first time. . . to the kids who did hit 5000 yards but are now trying to beat their time and see how fast they can complete it.

If you would like more information or would like to support our Y by sponsoring any of our swimmers, please feel free to call, text or email me and I would be happy to assist you.