Family YMCA staff, volunteers helping others

By Editor | April 8, 2020 |

Just because the Family YMCA of Fayette County is closed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t mean that the YMCA staff, or its volunteers, are idle.

The Family Y is offering a program through which staff and volunteers are running errands for seniors.
It is also lending its support to the Nourishing Greatness program that feeds school children on weekends.
The Family Y is also doing its part to help children enjoy Easter this Sunday.
“Several months ago, we put it out publicly that we were going to do this, and our Facebook analytics were off the charts,” Ben Frazier, the Family Y’s chief executive director said.
“This” is the YMCA’s “Egg My Yard,” a program through which the Y is delivering to homes on Easter eggs that are filled with candy by staff and volunteers.
“We’ve got well over 2,000 eggs here to fill and put out,” Frazier said. “We have got plastic eggs and candy galore in our lobby, stacked everywhere.”
The YMCA took orders until Monday for 50 eggs ($25), 100 eggs ($45) and 150 eggs ($65).
Participating in the YMCA’s Leaders Club project are members of the Y’s Board of Directors, volunteers and members of the Leaders Club, a group of teens ages 13-18 that focuses on community service, with making blankets for seniors and picking up trash being other projects.
Leaders Club members will be delivering eggs to about 40 households, and Frazier said that about half of the orders came from people buying eggs for their own children and the other half coming from people buying eggs for other children.
“Egg My Yard” was a program idea that came up even before Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued his shelter-at-home order several weeks ago. So, there was a discussion about whether the YMCA would proceed as planned.
“I give credit to Michelle (Alstat, the YMCA’s director of mission advancement),” Frazier said. “She came to me with the idea several months ago.
“She ran it through me, and I said, ‘We’ve got to do it. We have to.”
Then, after the shelter-in-place order, “She came to me and said, ‘Are we still going to do this?’
“And I said, ‘Absolutely – we have to. This is a way to keep Easter in our community,” Frazier said.
The Family YMCA is also continuing its support of Nourishing Greatness, doing so as part of its participation in the Vandalia ONE initiative introduced last year by Vandalia Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jennifer Garrison.
Nourishing Greatness, created by retired Vandalia teacher Debbie Hobbie, provides weekend meals for students in the district who receive free or reduced meals at school during the week.
Currently, more than 170 families in the district are receiving Nourishing Greatness packages every Friday.
For example, the packages cost about $5 per family, so a $50 donation feeds a family for 10 weekends.
The YMCA is encouraging the public to donate to the program, and also telling members that they can contribute their April membership dues to the program.
“We thought this is something where we can step up in times like this, taking it out there and putting it before the public to help out the program,” Frazier said.
“This kind of separates us from other organizations, as a 501c3 non-profit, community-centered organization. We can, during times like this, with our infrastructure, we’re meant for this,” he said.
“They (YMCA members) aren’t able to use our facility this month, so this is a way that their membership dues can be used for something good for others,” Frazier said.
“Our system is set up for something like this,” he said.
“It just made sense for us to be able to leverage our assets together to help provide continuity for those services,” he said.
As of Monday, Frazier said, donations to Nourishing Greatness “are something north of $4,000.
“We’ve had some small donations, as small as $20, and then we had a $1,000 donation come in last week.”
Currently, the plan is to support Nourishing Greatness for 10 weeks, though it possibly could continue past that, Frazier said.
The success they have seen in recent weeks, he said, “Just speaks to what this community is capable of doing in times of need.
“It’s a shame that it takes something like this to realize just how much the community can do right, but it shows that we’re capable,” Frazier said.
“If there is one thing for the community to gain from all of this, it’s for us as a whole and us as a population and us as a community to learn, hey, we can do anything we want if we set our mind to it.”
A third way that the Family YMCA of Fayette County is being a community support organization in this time of self-isolation is running errands for seniors in the community.
“Of course, we serve all populations and love everybody, but they (seniors) are a population that’s near and dear to our hearts, and this is something we can do for them at a time like this,” Frazier said.
“We’ve got about 250 senior memberships, so we do all we can to help them out,” he said. “They were the first population that came to mind in these uncertain times.
“We thought, what can we do to provide some normalcy in their lives,” he said.
“They still need to eat, they still need to run to the store, still need to do these various things,” Frazier said.
“I give a shout out to Michelle for this, also, for coming into my office and saying, ‘This is a great thing that we need to be doing.’
“My response is, ‘All right, let’s do it,’” Frazier said.
“We’ve had several take advantage of it so far. We had a lady call this morning whose son and daughter live out of town.
“And, quite honestly, it just sounded like she needed to talk to somebody, and, you know, that’s what we’re here for, too.
“Everyone’s routine is all messed up right now, and whatever we could do as a way to still bring that normality, that routine to their lives, we want to try to do that,” Frazier said.
“We absolutely love that demographic and doing what we can to improve their lives,” he said.
“Someone will come in and say, ‘Hey, I could tie my shoes today … thanks to you guys,’ all of this with someone who when they first came in here, there were stiff as a board.
“And, it’s not only the physical aspects to them coming here,” Frazier said. “I can’t tell you how many friendships have been formed with those seniors.
“It’s the social aspect that’s huge for them, and running errands is one of those things that can keep that aspect going,” he said.
In addition to praising those who are making these YMCA projects successful in a time like this, Frazier commended those who are directly dealing with this health issue.
“We’ve got so much respect for those men and women who are on the front line right now,” Frazier said. “They are real heroes.”