On the evening of November 2, staff, volunteers, donors, members and community partners came together to celebrate the YMCA of Greater Nashua’s impact at the 136th Annual Meeting. Held at the new Nashua Center for the Arts, in the heart of downtown, the agenda included a live performance by Y Dance In Motion, stories of impact and recognition of community partners.
LaChance expressed his pride in the YMCA adjusting their financial assistance scale to ensure greater access in providing over $700,000 in support dollars for families in childcare, programming, camp and membership fees.
Much of the evening focused on recognizing some of the YMCA’s community partners for their impactful work through the organization. Dr. Gautami S. Rao, with Southern New Hampshire Health, was recognized for her efforts of being the medical provider with the most referrals of patients to the LiveStrong At the YMCA program, a program designed to support cancer survivors. The Nashua School District was honored for their work with the YMCA on innovative youth development programs, Power Scholars Academy and Superhero Academy. Greater Nashua Mental Health was recognized for providing behavior specialists at YMCA Camp Sargent to support campers. And lastly, Nashua Community College was acknowledged for their recent implementation of Early Education certification courses at the YMCA in an effort to increase the pool of childcare workers throughout the community.
The evening concluded with Andy Whigham sharing a few impact stories from the past year: Kaleigh Mulligan, a dance instructor who grew up at the Y and recently raised over $3000 for Dancers Against Cancer through fundraising efforts with the dance team. Don Levi who has been a member for many years using the Y for exercise and family programming, but more recently has become a fixture and advocate in the Pedaling for Parkinson’s program. And an anonymous Early Education Center family who has been financially supporting another family’s tuition after they overheard a conversation about this need. Whigham shared that these stories are the magic of the Y and are supported by the efforts of staff, volunteers, board members, donors and community partners, to deeply impact the experience of those in the community.
Click Here to view additional photos from the Annual Celebration on our YMCA of Greater Nashua Facebook page.
