GROWING UP AT THE Y
The Eugene Family YMCA touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of kids in Lane County—through youth sports, swim and tennis lessons, afterschool programs and summer camps.
All of those children are impacted by the caring adults they encounter. But for some, their relationship with the Y doesn’t end when their childhood ends.
“The Y is the main reason I am who I am,” says Chip Marsh, Afterschool Site Director at Bertha Holt Elementary School. “I was raised on the YMCA’s core values of Caring, Honesty, Respect and Responsibility. It has always been a part of who I am.”
Chip, now 22, was an afterschool kiddo at Crest Elementary when Debbie Bury was the site director (Debbie is now one of the Y’s Rainbows Preschool Teachers).
Chip spent every summer and school break at a Y camp, and she played almost every Y sport offered. She calls Holly Kriz-Anderson (the Youth Development Director) her second mom.
Those Y experiences and people helped set the foundation of her development, but also left a lasting positive impression.
In 8th grade, as a Y camper, she camped on the rim of Crater Lake during one of the biggest meteor showers of the century. She returned the year she graduated high school to that same camp spot.
She laughs about the camp “gnome battles” in which the goal was to kidnap the ceramic gnome without campers finding out. Her camp director, Rachel Jackson (now the Assistant Youth Development Director), took the gnome out of a locked van one summer and campers returned to Eugene to find Rachel holding the gnome in her lap at closing ceremonies.
As Chip grew up, she transitioned to leadership roles—becoming a counselor-in-training ahead of her peers for summer camps, then a counselor and now a site director for one of the largest Lane County Y afterschool programs.
“Having grown up in these programs, the majority of my friends are here,” Chip says about the Y. “Somehow we all seem to find a way back.”
Chip loves the opportunity to provide space for kids to be who they are—just as her counselors and directors did for her.
WHY Y KIDS STAY
Madison Harms, a Y lifeguard and swim instructor, is also guiding children in the same way she was taught as a youngster. She was a preschooler in Teri Pionke’s room (Teri is still the Preschool Site Director in the Rainbow room), a summer camper, counselor-in-training, and lifeguard-in-training.
She teaches the Rainbow preschoolers twice a week to swim. “They can bob their heads into the water on their own now,” says Madison, now 19. “It is exciting to watch their progress and know that I am helping them grow.”
As Madison is being interviewed, Y members and staff stop by to say hi to this young woman they’ve known since she was little — “since BEFORE you were born,” Maintenance Director Jerry Geaney says, laughing.
“I feel like I am a Y rat,” Madison says. “I know the ins and outs of the building. I know all of the people. And I love how connected the Y is to the community and the community is to the Y.”
The community feel is what Willow Rariden, 24, loves about the Y. She was a Spring Creek Elementary student who went to Y afterschool care and connected with Rachel Jackson, the site director at that time.
“I went every day and I remember loving it,” she says. “I always looked forward to being there and I always wanted to be there.”
Willow loved her experience so much that she volunteered after school at Spring Creek Elementary through her middle and high school years. It was a simple decision to seek work in a Y afterschool program—Willow is now a teacher in the Y’s afterschool program at Gilham Elementary.
“I love it,” she says. “I feel like I am really helping. It’s giving me more of a sense of purpose. I feel like the kids love me as much as I love them. I am excited to see them.”
Willow has seen the Y kiddos grow in just the last five months since the school year began. One boy wouldn’t play with any other kids for the first two months, but with Willow’s encouragement and support, he’s developed close friendships with four other students and he also interacts with kids he hasn’t played with before.
“It is fun to see them grow socially,” she says. “I can tell for sure our staff is helping these kids and impacting them in a positive way.”
And maybe these Y kids will grow up to join the Y as future staff, guiding and growing another generation of youth.
