“Within the last 14 months there have been many unprecedented challenges, the YMCA of Centre County has stepped up multiple times during the pandemic, but tonight it’s all about saying
thank you.”
“The staff, the volunteers, and the board they did the work, and tonight is about them it’s about thanking them it’s what this celebration is for”
With a slogan like, where there’s a Y there’s away the YMCA of Centre County has always set out to help others, but during the pandemic, they have done the unimaginable.
“Our donors, our volunteers, our staff, our members that really stepped up and allowed us to get through the last 14 months but not so much helping the Y but helping the YMCA provide
services to the community to families and kids who really needed them, so we really wanted to have an event got everybody together and thank everything you’ve done for us, we appreciate
it so much, and the YMCA is so thankful to have all of these people involved in the YMCA community.”
Mitchell says now was the perfect time to recognize and reflect on the hard work and dedication the Centre County community has put forth.
“I think it’s a statement like hey get vaccinated, this is kind of the reward where we can get back to this environment that people have missed a lot over the last 14 months that face to
face connection. I think it plays a lot of roles, obviously were celebrating and thanking people who helped us but also showing let’s get back to normal.”
And even though things are not completely back to normal yet, Mitchell says the YMCA has learned a lot about what they need to do moving forward.
“We realized how critical of a role we played in keeping these families going and keeping food on the table and childcare so they can go to work…we realized that has to be our number one priority, so keeping our mission work/charitable work out in front and making sure that’s number one is going to be the way we operate moving forward.”
