Y part of the family for new Board President
Chip Radebaugh knows the Eugene Family YMCA like he knows his own family.
Chip grew up playing on Y basketball teams and going to Y summer camps. He used the weight room to get in shape and keep the blues away after college. And he strategically added Sheila’s Group Exercise class to connect with a woman named Elise, who later became his wife.
Chip returned to the Y after he and Elise came back to Eugene from Colorado—Chip with an MBA and law degree and Elise with a veterinarian degree. He expanded his Y experience to include leadership, accepting a position as a board member in 2012. Just a year later, Chip‘s son Ole was born and he was welcomed into the Y fold through its preschool and childcare programs.
It’s Chip’s intimate relationship with the Y that shapes his new role as YMCA Board President. “I was spending so much time at the Y and really getting a feel for the organization and all that it did in the community and I just felt like I wanted to know how I could do more. After meeting with Julie Grossman, who was the Assistant E.D. at the time, I realized the Board of Directors might be a nice fit.”
Chip assumed the position in August, when Danielle Uhlhorn left the board to be the Y’s Senior Director of Philanthropy.
At this stage of his Y journey, Chip is more than familiar with the strength of the YMCA: “The Y brings our community together in a welcoming, non-judgmental way.”
Chip, who is in the construction trade as a partner with Rainbow Valley Design and Construction, also knows our current building’s limitations. “This building is so inefficient in terms of the layout and design. It is a labyrinth.” Inefficiencies, a lack of space for new programming and the lack of an elevator to accommodate seniors and individuals who struggle with mobility limit our Y’s future.
“Once we have our flagship building, we can expand to areas with unmet needs,” Chip says. “Bethel, South Lane County, Cottage Grove and Creswell—these areas could benefit from the Y’s afterschool care, fitness programming and targeted interventions.”
He has no doubt that this vision will be realized.
“We have a killer team,” he says. “It really is the A-team. (CEO) Brian has stepped into this role at such a critical junction but he keeps everything in focus and remains calm. Under his leadership, we will accomplish our vision one step at a time.”
Chip’s leadership on the Y Board is no less impressive. In addition to his understanding of the Y’s many and diverse programs, Chip knows business, financial details, law and how to work with a 15-member board. Giving back to the community is just something Chip does: from his company donating a tiny house for low-income people at SquareOne Villages in Eugene to volunteering his time at Bridgeway House and, in the past, Food for Lane County and Willamette Wildlife, Chip is an example of someone driven to strengthen his community from the inside out.
