Every year, the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit asks its community to help ensure the Y is open to everyone regardless of their financial status through the Strong Kids Campaign. And the community came through in a big way. The Y ended the campaign 19 percent above goal, with $1.2 million raised association-wide.
That marks the largest amount raised in the last four years, says Susan Walters-Klenke, the Y’s director of development. She credits the individual branches effectively sharing the stories of how they serve the community through the Strong Kids Campaign. Branches use the funds to provide scholarships for families in need, and all funds raised stay at that branch.
What that means in human terms is that hard-working parents can give their children a fun, constructive summer at day camp, a grandmother raising her grandchildren can take care of herself with an exercise class so she can take care of her family, or young people with disabilities can have a place to belong.
Natalie Hayes is one person who benefits from a Strong Kids Campaign scholarship and is forever grateful for what it’s done for her and her family. She and her then-husband had a financially comfortable life, but after a bout with depression, difficult divorce and severe kidney problems, she and her two sons landed in a shelter. While there, she came to the YMCA and got scholarships to help with childcare while she trained for a new career. Her children have also attended the Camp Riley day camp at the Farmington YMCA. She spoke at the annual Heart of the Y event honoring volunteers, and said “My children and I stand here today as an example of how scholarships from the YMCA’S Strong Kids program help change lives for the better. When we first moved to Farmington I never would have imagined there were angels such as Ann Brumar and Laura Perlowski at the YMCA. Without their help I simply don’t know how we could have ever made it.”
Natalie is now enrolled in the Family Financial Empowerment Program through Camp Phoenix. Through the program, parents learn to manage money, develop career skills and talk over how to reach their life’s dreams with a life coach. One of her dreams? To be able to give back –“in a big way,” she says — to the YMCA.