The YMCA is not just made up of the staff and the members they serve; it’s also guided by the work of volunteers who bring their gifts and talents to bear on the Y’s vision of social responsibility, youth development, and healthy living. Each one of them is valued, and once a year the Y recognizes those who have gone above and beyond in helping the Y achieve its mission.
This year for the first time, an entire family, the Vanderkaays, was honored with the John Copeland Award. The family has been active in swimming for decades, and son Peter Vanderkaay is a four-time Olympian and has won at least one medal each time. The sons began their successful swimming careers at the Y in Rochester, where they grew up. And in December of 2011 the family helped the Y launch their groundbreaking, high-impact Detroit Swims project. Since its inception, they have supported the program’s goal of teaching every Detroit child to swim by fifth grade.
That support has taken various forms, from Peter leading a post-Olympics question and answer session from Detroit Swims alumni and then hopping into the pool with them to give them some pointers, to mom Robin’s raising money and collecting suits to allow children to participate in the program.
Since that first press conference where the Vanderkaays stood with Y staff to announce Detroit Swims, the YMCA has raised over $100,000 – with support from Illitch Children’s Charities, the Detroit Auto Dealer’s Association, Somerset Collection, and over 280 other individual donors. And that support means 1,546 Detroit children can swim well enough to be safe in the water.
The Vanderkaays have been invaluable to the Y’s effort to raise funds and awareness for the program, and in recognition the YMCA presented them the John Copeland Award for Civility and Community Service, which honors one of the Y’s most revered staffers.
John Copeland was a Y director whose impact on the Y was felt here in Detroit and on a national level. Educated in a one-room North Carolina schoolhouse, John Copeland attended Oberlin College on a full scholarship, where he played football, basketball, baseball and track — and even participated in a race against Olympian Jesse Owens.
Mr. Copeland’s YMCA career ultimately brought him to Detroit to play a crucial role in the social integration of the YMCA during the 1960s as executive director of the historically African-American St. Antoine YMCA. Copeland is credited with tactfully overseeing the closure of the branch as part of the YMCA’s effort to fully integrate and ensure membership equality for all YMCA members.
In 2003, the YMCA of Metro Detroit created the John Copeland Award for Civility to honor Copeland’s example and service to Detroit, a legacy which continues in the work of Y professionals and volunteers like the Vanderkaay family.
