This Week @ Your Y!Weekly YMCA Northumberland Associa on Update

For the week of August 1 to 7, 2011 Our e-news is for all YMCA staff, volunteers, members and our community to keep

connected and up-to-date with activities and planning taking place around our association.

Learning About Giving This summer at our Terry Fox YMCA Child Care began with the school age children learning about the power of giving and the meaning of building and contributing to our community. Together the children and the staff started planning different ways that we could help out and to raise money for our YMCA Strong Kids Campaign to help make sure that all kids in our community have the opportunity to learn, grow and

be active and healthy at the YMCA. The summer then brought a tragedy to one of our Terry Fox YMCA Child Care families and our focus briefly came to a halt while we all mourned the loss of Katie Bates, sister of Matthew who attends our centre. Once we refocused, the children and the staff made a decision to take one of our main fundraising ideas and dedicate it to the Bates family to help in their time of need. On Tuesday, July 26, the school age children reached out to the community by setting up a bake sale at the Cobourg YMCA for

the morning and then at the child care centre in the afternoon. With the help of the preschool and school age children and their families at Terry Fox YMCA Child Care, as well as the other YMCA Child Care centres, child care staff, YMCA Ontario Early Years staff and Association Services staff, we had many delicious home baked items for sale. The support of the community was

outstanding. The children really took on the whole event with great interest and enthusiasm. They took pride in figuring out the math for what the customers owed them and what they owed back in change. It was amazing how many people allowed them to count out their change and then they just handed it right back to the children for a donation. The children also explained to people why they were there and what they were learning. We want to thank everyone for all the support in food donations, purchases and everything that helped this event become not only a fundraising success story, but a great learning and growth opportunity for the children at our centre. A special thanks goes out to Happy for her generous gourmet cake auction and efforts in helping me organize things. We took advantage of the popularity of the cake auction by expanding it to two cakes, one auctioned at the Cobourg YMCA and one at the child care centre. At the Cobourg YMCA a group of staff got together and made a big bid for the cake and are planning a “cake day” in August where Happy will bake cake for the staff to share. The second cake auctioned at the child care centre was won by Tita DeMattos, a neighbour of the child care, who came in to make a bid in support of the children’s efforts. The bake sale and cake auction brought in $513.50 and we are so pleased to be able to add this to the Bates’ fund at the YMCA. We know that Doug, Mary, Ryan and Matthew will need support in so many ways over the next few months and this is our way of helping our YMCA family and community. Stay tuned for our August activities for YMCA Strong Kids which will include a Car Wash and Lemonade Stand! ~ Cathy Tedford, Supervisor, Terry Fox YMCA Child Care

Associa on • CEO’s Office‐Kyle Barber Hi Everyone, • I am on vacation this week. Have a great week. ~ Kyle Associa on & Human Services • The YMCA Northumberland and Northumberland Breakers Beach Volleyball Summer 2011

Program including Youth Skill Development, Adult Recreational and Competitive Leagues, and Youth and Teen Competitive 2s, will be wrapping up for yet another season the week of August 14. Thank you to all who assisted in the success of this program.

• The number of YMCA employees continues to remain in the low 200s as we reach the mid-summer mark.

• I have just spoken with "our" Mr. (Ross) Quigley, and am pleased to report that he is doing well after undergoing hip replacement surgery last Wednesday. He came home on the Friday and is walking 4 times a day, and having physio once a week....Ross has also said that he is open to visitors, the invitation is there to stop by at any time! ~ Lynne

Marke ng • This past week staff

and members of the YMCA celebrated an incredible achievement of long-time member, Mike Ellis. After playing squash nearly every day for 49 years, Mr. Ellis retired from the sport and played his last game at our Cobourg YMCA. A member of the Cobourg YMCA since 1988, it is estimated that Mr. Ellis played close to 6,500 squash matches in his lifetime! Friends and fellow squash players, including our CEO, Kyle Barber, treated Mr. Ellis and his wife, Suzanne Grew-Ellis, to lunch at Casey’s and a gift to help mark the end of an amazing squash career. ~ Jason

Volunteer Development • It is time to Challenge the Dragon, YMCA style. Get ready to paddle for the Northumberland United way in the 12th Annual Cameco Challenge the Dragon event. We are looking for team members for our boat and we need you on Saturday, September 24 from 8:30-3:00pm at the Cobourg Harbour. No previous experience required, you just need energy and enthusiasm. If you would like to participate, please contact me directly. • Help make our Strong Kids stronger! The YMCA Strong Kids Duathlon takes place on Friday, August 12 at Victoria Park and Centennial Pool and we need a few more helping hands. Please come out and help with set-up and take down as well as cheering the youngsters on as they compete in this wonderful athletic event where all kids are STRONG kids! Please contact me if you are able to spare a few hours that day. All proceeds from the event support our YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. Please encourage all the children you know to register too and help us make this another fantastic event. • If you are interested in joining our terrific team of volunteers, please contact me, Nancy Little - nlittle@ymcanorthumberland.com or

905.372.9247x313. ~ Nancy

Revenue Genera on • Our YMCA Strong Kids goal for 2011 is $83,000.00! Our total raised to date is already at

$51,500.00! Thanks so much to our generous staff, volunteers, members and community for helping give kids a chance at a healthy life through YMCA Strong Kids. Just think, already we can help more kids and families belong at our YMCA because of your help.

• REMEMBER - You can also donate any time from the comfort of your home computer at www.ymcastrongkids.ca and help our YMCA directly with ensuring more kids in our community are active and healthy, as well as their families, and people of all

ages from all walks of life right here in Northumberland. • On Saturday, July 23 the 2nd Annual Michelle Broomfield Memorial 3-Pitch Tournament took place in Baltimore. Approximately 12 teams took part in the event with the proceeds benefitting the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign. As the event organizers

were generous enough to donate the proceeds to our campaign, we were keen to enter a team! We put together a great mix of staff and

members and fielded a very competitive team. Our team entered the elimination rounds as the top seeded team but unfortunately were eliminated in the semi-finals. It was a tremendous day for baseball and everybody had a fantastic time. Our squad is already looking forward to next year’s tournament! In total $2,577.00 was raised for YMCA Strong Kids allowing us to send 20 kids to camp this summer! Thanks to everyone who participated and to the organizers who made the day

such a success. • Do you know what this is? It is called a QR bar code and you will probably have noticed them cropping up all over the place in magazines, advertisements and even printed onto walls of buildings! QR bar codes allow mobile phone users to scan the codes with their phones on printed materials like posters, door signs, business cards, packaging, ads and coupons, and it instantly connects them to the website of the company that is promoting the event or product. We have a QR code for our YMCA Northumberland website and you will begin to start seeing it on all our promotional materials. Some phones have an application built in to their phones to scan, but some phones may require

people to download an application-there are lots of free app downloads available. Once we test our QR code on various materials and see how it drives people to our website we can begin to add in more features and be able to do more detailed directing of people to areas of our site for specific events and promotions. ~ Happy

International Program • Some of you know Meyada Widaatalla who was one of our dedicated

youth volunteers and staff ,and the youth member of our International Committee during her high school years. She was also the recipient of our YMCA Youth Peace Medal in 2009 and the Michael Moore YMCA Memorial Scholarship as well as a scholarship from YMCA Canada in 2010. Meyada is now entering her second year at the University of Western Ontario. Meyada just got in touch to let me know that she been accepted by Youth Challenge

Meyada with her mother and younger sister at our YMCA Annual General

Mee ng in 2010

International to participate in a program along with 7 other voluntary youth ambassadors between the ages of 18 and 35 with Reco Juvenil Internacional in Costa Rica. The program will require Meyada to teach English classes and computer skills to adults and youth, promote youth involvement in the community through campaigns and workshops and organize recycling and waste management programs to help the community of Santa Maria de Dota with environmental challenges. Meyada is going to be doing some crash course Spanish learning (she wishes she could be here in September to study Spanish along with her mother, Rehab, and the Women Para Mujeres group!). I am so delighted to see Meyada take this next step in her learning and development and continuing her passion for international volunteerism. ~ Happy

Asset Management ~ Keith Cobourg YMCA Membership • Membership is 3547. • We would like to welcome Kari Walton to our Membership staff team. • Congratulations to Membership

Services staff team member Erin Gill and her family who welcomed their new baby girl this week. Her name is Irena Violet Eileen. ~ Samantha

Adult Programs • Zumba Toning started July 20-don’t

miss it and take your Zumba to the next level. ~ Leslie & Mette

Youth Development • Camp is booming! Come to

visit us to make new friends see old and current friends, learn new activities, go on trips and play all day. The Sun never sets at Camp Tiki. This week featured Aquatic Adventure Camp and the Trip Day adventures took our camper to the Peterborough Zoo and the Warsaw Caves. ~ Joel & Oona

Aquatics • So far this summer our waterfront lifeguards at

the Cobourg beach have done an amazing job. We have had multiple water rescues, beach first aid situations and missing children. This past weekend lifeguards left at the end of each exhausted from 3 days of approximately 20 water rescues and preventative rescues, major first aid emergencies on the beach and multiple cases of missing

children. Even though it was extremely busy and never seemed to stop, the guards kept going, demonstrating great skill abilities, rescue techniques and communication between each other and the public. Their training has been demonstrated throughout the summer and I am extremely proud of the Lifeguard team we have.

• If you currently hold a Standard First Aid Certification you are able to do one re-certification and then must complete a full course again. This standard has been mandated by both the Red Cross and the Lifesaving Society. The reasoning behind this is because First Aid standards and CPR standards are always being updated and the agencies feel that by the time you have to take a full course again these updates will be in effect and more time is needed to teach. This will also allow your skills to be seen closely to ensure quality in programs. Please contact me directly if you need to certify or re-certify. ~ Heidi

Brighton YMCA Membership & Programs • Anne is on vacation this week. ~ Anne

YMCA Child Care • Debbie is on vacation this week. ~ Debbie YMCA Ontario Early Years • Marina is on vacation this week. ~ Marina

YMCA Northumberland is a founding Member Agency of Northumberland United Way