YMCAs embrace people of all ages, incomes, abilities, religions and ethnic backgrounds; they're for everyone. Ys work to break barriers of isolation and to create the connections between people that add meaning to life. Children and families who cannot afford to pay full costs deserve the experiences the Y offers as much as those who can. Your support helps the Meeting Waters YMCA provide programs to those who otherwise couldn't afford to participate.

The Meeting Waters YMCA needs you to help children and teens grow up happy and strong. To support families in their efforts to be successful. And to make your community a safer, healthier, better place to live and work.

The Board of Directors of the Meeting Waters YMCA runs two campaigns each year to raise funds to support our charitable work. Each fall they run an Annual Support Campaign that provides support for the regional Y's programs and services for youth, teens, adults and families. In the Spring, the board engages the community in its Reach Out to Youth Campaign. One-hundred percent of the donations to this fundraising effort go to supporting the Meeting Waters YMCA's Scholarship Fund that ensures that our programs are accessible to all youth who want to participate. Won't you please help by supporting your local YMCA?

Below is our current request for your support:

Dear Supporter of Strong Kids and Strong Families, 

In these uncertain and challenging times, it is important for young people and their parents to have support and stability. Meeting Waters YMCA provides these for hundreds of families in the Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, Springfield and Fall Mountain regions. We provide year-round out-of-school care for hundreds of elementary school children up and down the Valley making us the largest provider of school-age child care and summer camp programming. 

While our asset-based curricula “build strong kids,” these programs also “build strong families” by providing essential supports for working parents and entire families—not only through our reliable, comprehensive care (which includes full days during all school vacations, teacher in-service days and even holidays)—but also through the family strengthening activities that are part of all of our youth development programs. Families are finding the quality, reliability and accessibility of our youth programs an essential component of their daily lives—especially in these challenging times.  Each year at this time, we reach out to our neighbors to join us in our Reach Out to Youth Campaign.

100% of the funds raised through our Reach Out to Youth Campaign are used to ensure that local kids and families have access to our high-quality, asset-building youth development programs and services. Through experience, we’ve learned that access has two primary meanings in relation to our work with area youth:  

• Financial assistance: Our commitment to keep our programs accessible to all is being challenged. Demand for financial assistance is at its highest in decades. Even though fees for our high-quality programs are among the lowest in the area, some families cannot afford even modest program fees. Through our Reach Out to Youth Scholarship Fund, we ensure that no one is denied access to our programs for lack of ability to pay.

• Camp Transportation: The positive impacts of a high-quality summer camp experience are well documented. Our camp bussing service makes a high-quality summer camp experience possible for hundreds of area children. Our three camp busses will drive more than 15,000 miles to transport children from  Alstead, Bellows Falls, Brattleboro, Charlestown, Chester, Drewsville, Dummerston, Langdon, Putney, Saxtons River, Springfield, Walpole, Westminster and surrounding communities to our camps. We offer this service while at the same time keeping our camp fees among the lowest in the Valley. The cost of offering this bus service will be in excess of $30,000 this summer! We need your help to make this possible.

Please help us to continue to provide support and stability to the youth and families in your community. Please consider a generous contribution to our Reach Out to Youth Campaign. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. To make your donation online, click here. To download and print a donation form, go here.

Sincerely,                     

Gretchen Horton Kuebler, President                Steve Fortier, Executive Director