Tag Archives: Macomb YMCA

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Y Rallies Around Trainer

Everyone faces adversity in their life, and how a person responds to that tells a lot about who they are.  Jamie Stec, a personal trainer at the Macomb YMCA, proved herself to be strong not just physically but emotionally as well when she faced a frightening breast cancer diagnosis last July, and didn’t let it stop her from working with clients or keeping up with her own exercise routine.

Despite the fatigue and nausea of cancer treatment, Jamie kept coming in to work with her clients as often as she could “still rocking the bald head,” she says.  She finished up radiation and still has some surgery in front of her, and will be on medication for years to control the cancer, but all things considered she’s doing very well. she says. She’s back to training for the Detroit International Marathon this fall and knocked out a 14-mile training run just this past weekend.

Jamie believes that already being fit and healthy helped her stay active throughout her treatment, a fact she tries to pass along to her clients now. “Being a distance runner as well, I was no stranger to stress on my body and no stranger to pain,” she says. “I knew there was a finish line,  it would just take me awhile to get there.”

Her clients, as well as other Y members, told her how much she inspired them by continuing to work out even while she was facing such challenges. “They would tell me ‘if you can do this, I don’t have any excuses.’”

Her Y family stepped up to help her after her diagnosis. “I would not have been taken care of the same way if I worked  at a gym,” she says. “Because I worked at a place that cares about its employees, its members, and the community, I was very well taken care of.” The staff gave her children a week of day camp, so she could recover from surgery without worrying about them. A friend took over working with her small group training class and refused to take the fee, asking that it still go to Jamie.  And she especially notes that her boss, Wellness Director Christina Wollcott, was incredibly supportive.

Her family is very involved at the Y: Her husband is a triathlete and trains there, and her children are in Y sports. When she was undergoing her education to become a personal trainer, she interned at the Y, and volunteered there when she was done until they could hire her.

As her recovery progresses, she is looking at it as an opportunity to discover her true strength.

“Cancer really can adjust your priorities,” she says. “It’s been interesting, but I find I myself, as I progress through all of my treatments, finding out exactly how strong I am.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Students Experience Work at the Y

The Y is the first job for lots of young people, whether it’s working as a day camp counselor, a lifeguard, or in child watch. At the Macomb YMCA, students from the Pankow Center in L’Anse Creuse  Public Schools have been coming to the Y to get some of their first work experiences for nine years now.
This year’s crop of students,  Marina, Victoria and Elvi, come to the Y four days a week for a little less than an hour a day as part of their regular school day.  They help out with everything from washing, drying and folding towels to cleaning the fitness equipment to assembling mailings. Sometimes they help with events, or work outdoors on the Y’s beautiful, volunteer-maintained gardens.
Betty Peretiatko, who works with them through the school and supervises them at the Y, says that it’s a great way for these young people to get some work experience, and everyone a the Y is very accepting and welcoming of them. They’ve made a great deal of progress through their time at the Y. It’s a good thing for the Y staff, as well, because with the students to help them with more routine tasks they can focus more on serving members. “We have such a great partnership with the Y,” says Betty. “They are observing people at work and out in public, and the Y staff serves as role models for them.”
The students are required to call in if they are sick, and have assigned tasks they are expected to accomplish with minimal direction. It’s clear from observing them they have a strong sense of pride in their work and want to do well. Steve Krankota, membership cordonator for the Macomb Y, says they have become a part of the Y family. As for the students, they wear their Y shirts with pride and look forward to coming there, Betty says.

 

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New Mom Gets Healthy With Help From Trainer

It’s amazing what people can do when they believe they can. And sometimes it takes someone else’s belief in the them to spur them on to accomplish their goals.

That’s what happened for Dani Keith-Marchment. Like so many women, she struggled with her weight for more than a decade. Each year she’d put on a little more until she found herself over 200 pounds.

After having a baby in 2011, she topped out at 247 pounds. Knowing she needed to get control of her weight, she joined the Macomb YMCA with a friend in June of that year and lost 20 pounds working out on her own.

Then she met trainer Dion Kimbrough. She started taking small group classes with him, and then began 1:1 sessions. The pounds started to peel off — and more importantly, her mindset began to change right along with her body. “I found that I was physically & mentally capable of more than I ever gave myself credit for,” she says. She ran her first 5K in June, which she never thought she could or would do, and now has committed to training for a half marathon.

“I have learned and still continue to learn so many things from Dion and learn things about myself as well,” Dani says. “He always has me focused on what my next goal is all of the time, which helps me stay on track.”

She’s lost 75 pounds since December of last year, for a total of 95 pounds. She credits Dion and her friend, Crystal, who convinced her to join the Y, for their help and inspiration.

And now, she wants to share her own story to inspire others. “I look and feel like an entirely different person. I feel as though this weight loss has opened up so many more opportunities for me,” she says.

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Y Helps New Family Cope

Any parent can remember the emotional and physical challenges of those first days and weeks with a new baby…being exhausted, joyful, and in awe of this newly arrived little person. It can also be somewhat scary.

For Macomb YMCA Director Josh Landefeld and his wife Christy, all those emotions of new parents and more were magnified. Christy experienced a host of life-threatening complications and lost her sight while giving birth to their daughter two years ago.

Daughter Emy was fine, despite being a little premature. She spent some time in neonatal intensive care but was able to come home within a week. For her mother, things were not so smooth. Christy spent Emy’s first two months in and out of the hospital with various complications.

That meant Josh was on solo dad duty, learning to do all the things a new parent does while his wife struggled to get better. “It was extremely challenging, trying to take care of Emy at the same time and visit Christy and make sure I was there for her,” he says. “For a couple hours each day either I and/or Emy would go back into the hospital to see Christy and do what we could to have a family connection during those challenging moments.”

That difficult time was made easier by the support from his coworkers at the Plymouth YMCA, where he was director at the time. A few days a week, he had to bring Emy to work with him… not only because of a lack of childcare options but because he enjoyed spending the time with her forging the all-important father-daughter bond. And it wasn’t just her dad she bonded with. “Everyone there was extremely supportive …everyone was wonderful,” Josh says, “They provided care and love in way most babies don’t get at that young of an age.”

It wasn’t just a blessing to Josh and Emy to have the support from the Y staff; they also enjoyed the chance to get to know Emy and see her grow and develop. And all that love and care from a team of very caring people has had a great effect on his daughter, Josh says. “All the interactions with different people and situations in her early life helped her grow into something special,” he says.

Christy continues to improve. She attended a program to help her adjust to life without her vision, and this past fall went back to teaching. She also served as a Girls on the Run coach at her school. Emy, who recently turned two, is a healthy, happy, talkative toddler. And the Y family continues to be very much a part of theirs. “I’m very fortunate to work at a branch and an organization where that kind of love and support and understanding was there,” Josh says. “And they have continued to be supportive through all of it. The whole time you know you’re having a kid, you know it will change your life — we just didn’t know it would change this much.”

 

 

 

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Swim Team Scores at National Meet

Two girls from the Macomb Marlins, the Macomb YMCA’s  swim team, competed at the YMCA national meet earlier this spring. Both swam in four events. Marah Pugh had the best National meet in the history of the Marlins with a second place, a third place and two fourth places: fourth in the 500 free and in the 400 IM, where she cut seven seconds off of her time. The third place came in the 1000 yard free and the second place came in the 1650 free. In the process, she set four new Marlins team records.

Nicole had two personal best swims, cutting four seconds off her time in the 200 breast stroke and in the 200 fly where she cut almost a full 2 seconds. Her 200 IM time of 2:09.24 set a new team record.

“Our girls did us proud and they couldn’t have done that without having an amazing program behind them, the swimmers as well as the parents,” says Steve Krankota, membership director of the Macomb Y. “Believe it or not, our little contingent of two placed 21st in the Girls competition, out of more than 100 teams.”

Nicole’s mom, Bridget, said the event was bittersweet because it marked her daughter’s last with the Macomb Marlins. Nicole has been swimming with the Marlins since she was seven years old, and will swim at Bowling Green State University in Ohio next year.

Bridget says the Y core values were very apparent in the swim program. “Out of all the different teams, they seem to be more easygoing  and not just focused on competition. It’s more like a family-friendly place,” she says.

Club swimming also helped Nicole in high school, Bridget says. Swimmers who start young in a club program like the Y have an advantage in high school swim, because they are already prepared for competition and are used to the amount of training it takes to be successful. And that training also helps kids avoid some of the temptations of high school life, she says. “It might be their personality, because they end up with kids who are doing the same kind of thing they are, but they are swimming two hours a day for six days a week…those kids are exhausted!” she says.

Bridget has found that people at the Y stand out for the way they treat others, she says. “The Y is always supportive,” says Bridget. “When we go to these big events and they are just very kind and friendly, it reminds me of  how people are supposed to be — trustworthy and respectful of other people.”

 

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Fond Goodbye Shows the Y’s Power to Connect

The Y is more than just a place to swim, take a Zumba class, or work out in the Wellness Center.  Instead, it’s a place where the physical benefits of being active are enhanced by the real connections made with Y staff, class instructors, and fellow members.

Steve Krankota, membership coordinator of the Macomb Family YMCA in Mt. Clemens, got  a nice letter from member John Huige recently that exemplifies this connection people feel with the Y — how  it’s a home away from home for many members. John and his wife were moving out of state, and took the time to let Steve know how much their Y experience has meant to them.

“Our original sign-up began as a simple New Year’s resolution many years ago, but that casual commitment has grown to be an important part of our lives….We consider many of the people who we met at the Y as good friends,” he wrote.  “For me, many of my visits began with a warm welcome from Erica. From there, I generally take a class from Val, Heather, Izzy, Betsy or Jamie. I would like to extend my special thanks to each of them for putting up with me and hopefully extending my life a few years.  Sue and I have made many friends at the Y who we certainly miss….Finally, Steve, thanks for your friendship and assistance throughout the years.”

Clearly, his experience at the Y had a big impact on John. Y staff taking the the time to ask a question, say a kind word or deliver a dose of encouragement means more than they likely ever realize, and the impact on a person’s health goes far beyond the physical benefits of exercise.

 

 

 

 

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Lifeguard Buoys The Strong Kids Campaign

To just about anyone, $240 is not a small amount of money. To a college student, it’s a lot — enough for a semester’s worth of books, or several months worth of late-night pizza.

For Chelsea Cheek, it’s just one part of the money and time she gives to the Strong Kids Campaign.

Chelsea is a biology major at University of Detroit Mercy and works two jobs, one of which is serving as a lifeguard at the Macomb YMCA. She’s been there two years. Shortly after starting, she was inspired by a  little boy going to swim lessons to help out with the Strong Kids Campaign. He wanted goggles before going in the pool, and Chelsea was able to find some for him to borrow. She suggested that he ask his mom to get him some of his own.

“His eyes started getting all red like he was starting to cry, and he told me they can’t afford things like that,” Chelsea said.  “Even if I can’t help him get goggles, I have been fundraising based on that one little boy.”

She’s held a few fundraisers for the Strong Kids campaign since then and raised about $100-$150 each time; among her ideas have been a euchre tournament, a bottle drive and a rubber duck race.

Chelsea also donates $10 out of each paycheck to the Strong Kids Campaign, for a total of about $240 per year. For a college student, $10 can go a long way, but Chelsea says she thinks donating is a better use of the money. “If it wasn’t taken out of my check, I’d probably just go to McDonald’s. I think I can skip out on McDonald’s if I can send a kid to camp for the day.”

She comes from a giving family — her mother holds an “all-comers” Christmas party every year that routinely draws a huge crowd.

“I can’t do that, but I can volunteer,” she says.