Posted on May 2, 2013 by Amy Kuras

Silver Sneakers Member Uplifts Others

There are some people in life who bring light to anyone who crosses their path through their warmth, positive attitude, and refusal to let limitations keep them down.
Peggy Johnson is one of those people. The 54-year-old married mother of two children comes to the Boll Family YMCA twice a week for the Silver Sneakers exercise class and to do a cardio workout afterwards. That’s not uncommon, but the challenges she faces in getting to the Y are.

Peggy has cerebral palsy and uses crutches to walk. She does not drive, so she either gets a ride from her husband, Quentin, who she calls “such an inspiration to me” or takes a bus from her home in southwest Detroit to the Boll two days a week. She says people at the Boll have been very welcoming to her and make her feel at home. “People here are so encouraging, uplifting and positive,” she says. “And it’s been so great to be an encouragement for others.”

Silver Sneakers classes are designed for older people and people with physical limitations. instructor Marietta Franklin helps students with modifications based on their abilities, while still ensuring they get a good workout. There’s a warm, friendly, supportive vibe in the class, and members help each other out.

Tom Bender, branch operations manager for the Boll, says Peggy is “such a positive person, each interaction I have with her…always smiling and upbeat.”

The class has helped Peggy as well, both physically and emotionally. “Getting out and interacting with the group helps my morale,” she says. She retired from the city of Detroit after a long career as a physical therapist, so she knows the power of exercise to heal body and spirit. “As long as I can keep moving, I can keep going throughout my life,” Peggy says.

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Amy Kuras

New Neighbor Helps Girls On The Run

Sometimes an interaction can have wide-ranging impact, not only on the people involved but on the community around them. That was the case with Jeff Lambert, president and managing partner of Lambert, Edwards and Associates. The public relations firm recently moved their offices from Troy to the block of Broadway in Downtown Detroit that also is the location of the Boll Family YMCA. That move was catalyzed in part, Lambert says, by a visit to the Boll.

Lambert, a longtime board member of the Y in West Michigan, wanted to make a donation to provide swim lessons to needy children. He connected with the team running Detroit Swims, which has the goal of providing swim lessons to every child in Detroit, and gave a $10,000 donation. The Boll staff held an event to thank him, and Lambert was taken with the activity and energy in the neighborhood surrounding the Boll.

“That was my first introduction to that area,” Lambert says. “Fast forward a year and half or so, and now we’re neighbors.”

Lambert, Edwards and Associates moved into an abandoned office suite that is now a vibrant, open plan office that’s drawn notice for its sports theme.

The firm wanted to mark their new space in a special way, so they crafted a creative donation to Girls On the Run. At Christmastime, they gave each of their clients a gift certificate for a pair of shoes from Wolverine Worldwide, which makes Saucony running shoes as well as iconic brands such as Hush Puppies, Merrell and Stride Rite. When clients redeemed the certificate, Lambert, Edwards and Associates donated a pair of shoes to Girls on the Run. “We celebrated our new offices by paying it forward,”Lambert says.

All told, Lambert, Edwards and Associates donated 100 pairs of shoes. Many of the young women who participate in Girls On the Run can’t afford quality running shoes, so the donation will allow a lot more girls access to the program. It teaches girls about resisting peer pressure, raising self-esteem and making healthy choices wile also training for a 5K race.

As a longtime Y member and board member, Lambert believes in the Y’s commitment to all forms of healthy living and to a diverse community.

“The Y is a great example of a public/private partnership,” Lambert says. “It’s evolved from the traditional gym and swim to being a community advocate for everyone from the youngest to the oldest members of the community. It touches all aspects of a person’s wellness, and that’s something we really believe in.”

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Amy Kuras

School Spotlighted in Art Exhibit

Visitors to the Boll Family YMCA throughout the month of March may have noticed some fairly unusual things about the most recent art exhibit in the lobby. They’re organized not by theme or visual similarity, but by school subject. And the works are very diverse — not only paint and pencil, but handwork such as hand-sewn dolls and knitted items.

These pieces are the work of students at the Detroit Waldorf School. Waldorf is a form of education that infuses arts into the curriculum in many ways. Math concepts, for example, are explained by singing, storytelling, and rhythmic activities which letchildren use their whole bodies to learn. Visual art helps with memorization and helps students to appreciate the beauty of numbers.

“We really connect it to our curriculum,” says Charis Calender-Suemnick, outreach director for the school.

Waldorf is a small school, with only 132 students this school year across grade 1-8. One of the goals of having the exhibit at the Y was to increase enrollment, Charis says, and also to showcase the abilities of their students. They came to the Y because several parents were members, and it has been a good experience all around, she says. They had an opening exhibit in early March which drew a lot of interest and was very exciting for the students, to see their work on display in a gallery setting. It shows how accomplished students are upon graduation, Charis says. “Kids that graduate from here are so versatile in their talents and their interests.”

The Detroit Waldorf school was founded in 1966 and is located in the Indian Village neighborhood of Detroit. It is part of an international community of Waldorf schools, with more than 1,000 schools in 60 countries.

Want to learn more? Check out this video made by one of the Waldorf parents about the Y exhibit:

Waldorf Video.

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Amy Kuras

Barracudas Excel In, Out Of The Pool

The Boll YMCA Barracudas Swim Team is tearing it up in the pool: they are swimming at national meets, including last week’s Black History swim meet in Washington, DC; they’re putting in the time at practice and seeing results like faster times, and they are doing all this while still performing well in school.

Swimmer Harisen Davis, for example, came to the Y for swim lessons and, after joining the team, quickly progressed to be one of the fastest swimmers for her age group, Charisse Woods, the youngest swimmer on the team at age 7, has one of the largest spirits, according to her coach. Charisse placed 6th fastest in all four strokes for her age group, out of 62 swimmers, while in D.C. Both girls are on scholarship at the Y through the Strong Kids Campaign. Neither would be able to participate in this program that has allowed them to excel and grow without the generosity of those who give to the Strong Kids Campaign.

It’s not just the kids on the team who are benefitting from the Barracudas. Another amazing result is the teamwork among the parents of the kids on the team. Many of them face financial challenges — six out of the 17 students are on scholarship, and 12 came to the team through swim lessons taken on scholarship. But they have come together to make the program what they want for their children. Through tireless fundraising, they have financed all kinds of remarkable experiences for the team members. “They want uniforms and national meets and rewards and team equipment and team morale and team camaraderie; so, they decided to fundraise and dedicate themselves to serve on self-appointed committees,” says Boll Aquatics Director Mike Hamlett. “They are using their efforts and networking connections to help build their program into the thriving system that it is beginning to be.”

It all speaks to the higher purpose of the YMCA; beyond teaching some children to swim and giving them a chance to excel through hard work and support, the Barracudas (like so many other Y programs) have built a stronger community. As Mike wrote of the team, “By our actions at the Boll Family YMCA, we have initiated change. Change within ourselves and change within other people. When we do for those who can’t do for themselves, we are serving a much higher purpose than just punching in on a clock and earning a paycheck. We are planting seeds; seeds of respect, honesty, caring, and responsibility into our youth development. As we water and fertilize those seeds, they will develop and grow into socially responsible people; and possibly be able to give back to their communities through the healthy living that they received from us here at the Boll Family YMCA.”

Posted on February 2, 2013 by Amy Kuras

Raising Funds for Girls On The Run

Girls On The Run has become a signature program of the YMCA of Metro Detroit. Not only does it get girls hooked on running, it helps them set goals, boost their self-esteem, and learn how to resist peer pressure. They form strong bonds with their teammates and develop self-respect and an understanding of healthy lifestyles.

It’s an amazing program, and it costs money to run. To ensure that girls who might not otherwise be able to afford to participate in Girls On The Run can enjoy all the benefits of the program, a team of women is heading up a Crowdrise fundraiser to cover costs at the Boll Family YMCA for 80 girls during the Spring and Fall seasons. Their aim is to provide healthy snacks, program fees, and proper running gear (shoes, shorts, shirt, and socks). Their goal is to raise $14,000 and about $3,600 has been raised so far.

Suggested levels of giving are:

5k Level: $50 – sponsor one girl’s gear
10k Level: $125 – sponsor one girl’s program fees
½ Marathon Level: $175 – total sponsor for one girl (including gear & fees)
Marathon Level: $2,500 – sponsor a full team of girls.

Donors can give whatever amount they choose outside those giving levels, of course, and donations are accepted right on the Crowdrise site. And donors can feel good about launching girls on the path to an emotionally, socially and physically healthy life.

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Amy Kuras

City Kids Learn Baseball Skills

The Boll family YMCA stands almost within sight of Comerica Park, where the American league Champion Detroit Tigers play. And while the field is covered with snow and spring training is still a long way off, Detroit kids are getting a chance to learn the fundamentals of baseball through a series of clinics at the Boll Family YMCA.

Justin Prinstein runs the clinics. He’s a professional baseball player in Europe, acting as player-manager of the Hrosi Drno team in the Czech Republic and also serving as manager of the Hungarian national baseball team. When he returned home to Detroit in the off-season, he was looking for a place to train and found the Boll Y. In doing so, he realized that Detroit lacks facilities to play baseball, especially the kind of indoor winter training clinics that are common in the suburbs. So he approached Y program director Nikole Saffle about starting a baseball clinic for the community that would be free to the public. The first clinics last year were a huge success, and this year’s series kicks off today.

“We have kids who come in that have never seen a baseball, and we also have kids come in who are really good and really talented and could go someplace,” he says. The Y has a type of portable batting cage that can be used indoors, soft, cushioned baseballs and other equipment. For this year’s clinics, Franklin Park Vision in Sylvania, Ohio donated hundreds of dollars worth of equipment for the participants to use, Justin says.

The program is open to both boys and girls. In fact, Justin says, last year a girl was the best player.

Although the Tigers’ recent success has sparked more interest in baseball, city kids tend to be more into football or basketball. Justin says that beyond learning a new sports skill, there are a lot of valuable lessons in baseball that can benefit young people.

For example, he says, it’s a team sport so sometimes players have to sacrifice for the good of the whole team, but individual excellence also matters. And because there is no clock, it teaches patience and persistence: sometimes players have to wait for the right pitch before they swing instead of making choices because the clock is running down, and even if they are down 20 runs in the last inning they could still come back and win the game so giving it their all until the very last out is important. “They learn you should keep fighting and keep trying even when you see all the cards are stacked against you,” he says.

Another way in which persistence pays off in baseball and life is learning how to accept failure as well as success. “You can be the best player in the world and still get an out 7 or 8 times out of 10,” Justin says. “Learning how to be not successful is just as important as learning how to be successful.”

The next clinics are Feb. 9 and 23 and every Saturday in March. Ages 7-9 or less experienced players can come from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and ages 10-12 or more experienced players can come from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Programs are free, but preregistration is suggested to reserve a spot. Call the Boll Connection Desk at 313-309-9622 to preregister.

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Amy Kuras

Innovative Film Screens at Y

Imagine a film that covers five continents, features hundreds of cast members and extras, and breaks new ground in storytelling.

Sounds like a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster? Wrong. It’s “The Owner,” the first project from independent CollabFeatures. It’s the product of a collaboration between 25 directors from around the world, helmed by Detroit filmmakers Marty Shea and Ian Bonner. The film screens at 7:30 on Friday, Jan. 18 at the Boll Family YMCA.

The idea for the film was born from a website that Marty and Ian built to collaborate with filmmakers they had met on the film festival circuit. It was originally supposed to be only US filmmakers, but international filmmakers found them as well.

Marty and Ian, who have worked together for ten years, has always wanted to work on a collaborative project with a large group, and “The Owner” is the first one they have brought to fruition. It started with a really basic idea — following a green backpack around the world, through many stories and situations, in a quest for its actual owner. This was a way for the filmmakers to create one feature length film that could have wider distribution versus a series of short films.

“There are all these filmmakers pulling in time and money and favors to make these short films, and then they don’t have much of a market,” says Marty. “If we could all do it together, if we spent time collaborating on the writing process and then make each film a piece of it, we could make a full-length film.”

Each filmmaker who participated wrote and directed his or her own section of the script, figured out how it would fit in the larger narrative, and shot those scenes. Marty and Ian then cut them together and shared them on the website for the other other filmmakers to critique and correct. The script was written via a similar process.

Because most of the collaboration took place online, some close friendships were formed between people who may or may not have met in real life. Marty himself has met three or four of his collaborators in person and talked over Skype with a few more, but most of them are a strange combination of close collaborators and people he’s never met.

“I feel like I know these people as well as I do some of my neighbors,” Marty says. “We have disagreements sometimes, and get them ironed out, like a family.”

The film holds the world’s record for the largest number of directors to work on a film, as certified by Guinness.

Marty describes the film as an epic road movie, with elements of drama, comedy and satire in it. Once scene, which Marty directed, was shot in Detroit at the Alger Theater, an abandoned theater on Detroit’s east side which a group of community members is trying to save. This is the first showing of the film in the city of Detroit, although it premiered at Emagine Novi back in May of 2012.

They chose the Boll for the screening because Marty and Ian, as Detroit residents, really wanted to make sure the film showed at least once in Detroit. Marty knows many of the instructors involved with the Y-Arts program, including Y-Arts director Margaret Edwartowski, through Detroit’s arts community. “She is someone I admire — I love her as a playwright and an actress,” he says. “Because of the community that surrounds that place that is so enthusiastic, we knew it would be a good place to be.”

Tickets are available at CollabFeatures’ website and will also be available at the door 30 minutes before the screening.

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Amy Kuras

New Program Helps Families Set Goals

Twenty families who use the Y’s child care facilities are getting a chance to learn how to dream big — and make those dreams a reality — with a new family financial empowerment program.

The program, funded by the United Way, targets families with incomes between 100 percent and 200 percent of the poverty line. The Y has recruited a specialist in career coaching and life coaching, who will have initial one-hour sessions with each family during which they will set some financial and career goals, and then have follow-up sessions over the phone for the next several months.

The next phase is a motivational forum, where participants will come to the Y, have dinner and hear speakers discuss such topics as financial literacy, finding their passions and the importance of saving. Dinner will be served and child care will be provided, which is an important factor in making it possible for families to attend these events, says Matthew Cunningham, the family financial planning program coordinator. “it’s not just focused on finding a job, but asking people ‘what do you really want to do’ and looking at their skills, interests and what needs to be developed,” he says. “We’re focusing on their strengths and combining that with the life coaching philosophy. Instead of just saying ‘hey, you need to get a job’ — we say ‘you’re going to do this thing that is your passion, and we’re going to advocate on your behalf.”

Finally, if participants have attended the events and are working well with their career coach, they will be awarded a certain percentage off their childcare bill, up to half. For these families, who often live paycheck to paycheck and have to stretch every dollar, that’s a significant amount of money to have back in their monthly budget. And with the financial planning skills they have learned, they will be able to put the money to good use furthering their financial goals.

The program will kick off with families from the Boll and Lakeshore branches and expand to Farmington and Downriver later this year. Childcare center directors helped recruit families, Matthew says, because they were aware of families that sometimes had to pay their bill late or were struggling in another way and could benefit from the training.

Empowering families to reach for a better future is the goal of the program, Matthew says. “So many of these parents are very committed and motivated. They’ve faced a lot of adversity and overcame those obstacles. Those folks who can make the commitment to do the coaching and commit to all the motivational forums can see a real change in their life, and use the program as a catapult to a better level of life.”

Posted on December 15, 2012 by Amy Kuras

Showcase Highlights Potential of Detroit Kids

Improvisation is “the art of making it up” — of taking what you’re given, no matter how meager, and making it into something good. That’s also, as it happens, a pretty great description of Detroit. Now, some talented kids from the city are benefiting from the chance to hone their improvisation skills with the help of experts in the craft, thanks to Y-Arts and a group of successful professionals who were nurtured here and continue to give back to the city that launched them.

Students from five Detroit schools, Western International, Bates Academy, and Brenda Scott Middle School, as well as two schools for incarcerated youth, just wrapped up ten weeks of improv instruction by professional actors and will be showing off their newly acquired skills at a showcase at the Marlene Boll Theater at the Boll Family YMCA in downtown Detroit.The showcase is at 4 p.m. Sunday. Dec. 16 and the event is free.

The classes are part of the Detroit Creativity Project, which is run by Y-Arts and fueled by donations from a group of actors who are mostly in Los Angeles now and are reaching back to help bring the skills inherent in improv to city kids. While the program certainly helps fill in some of the gaps in arts education left by funding cuts at Detroit Public Schools, the benefits of learning improv will stay with these teens even if they never step on a stage again. Learning to listen, work together for the good of the team, and most importantly building confidence are all huge parts of the improv experience.

It’s especially effective for the students in the incarcerated program, says Margaret Edwartowski, director of Y-Arts who teaches some of the classes. “The whole goal is to make each other look good,” she says. “I’m sure that’s not a familiar feeling for the environment these kids are coming from. ” She adds that one of the teachers in the incarcerated schools was intimidated by the students, but ended up having a wonderful experience. “By the end he was just energized and everyone had a great time. It’s pretty miraculous what you can come up with when working with them.”

Last spring, 80 students participated in the program, and you can get look at what they did via this video:

Detroit Creativity Project Video

Next week, you can support the program and enjoy a great night of improv as well. The 313, which is a group of improv comedians who have found success on the coasts and which was the genesis of the Detroit Creativity Project, will be doing a fundraiser at 8 p.m. on December 23 at Go Comedy! in Ferndale. Cost of the show is $20 and tickets are available via gocomedy.net.

Y COMMUNITY IMPACT

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