Meeting Waters YMCA will join over 5,000 other organizations nationwide in hosting Lights on Afterschool! on Thursday, October 18. The event is designed to showcase the role that afterschool programs play in improving academic performance, decreasing problem behaviors, and providing safe havens for children in the “danger zone” hours of 3-6 pm.

The week of September 22-29, a total of 113 Meeting Waters YMCA program participants and their families, as well as staff and volunteers, walked a total of 2,708,966 steps during America On the Move Week With the YMCA. Nearly 1,500 YMCAs nationwide partnered that week with American On the Move Foundation in encouraging members of our community to take “small steps” toward a healthier lifestyle. The national goal of 10 billion steps during America On the Move Week with the YMCA was met and exceeded.

Meeting Waters YMCA is offering a free ten-week course called Journey to a Healthier Lifestyle. The program meets from 6:30-8:00pm on Wednesday nights at the regional Y’s Bellows Falls’ facility on Atkinson Street. The first session will be held on October 10th.

The boards of both Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and Meeting Waters YMCA have given the green light to forge ahead with a new health initiative for the community. The joint venture between the two important community services will provide medical, fitness, and community health services within the new YMCA complex to be built on the former Northeast Cooperatives property just off Putney Road.

Meeting Waters YMCA, New Hampshire Public Television and Vermont Public Television, are teaming up to present “FAT: What No One is Telling You” which airs for the first time on Wednesday, April 11th at 9pm. The show–the second in a four-part series on health issues in America–will explore the myriad of psychological, physiological, and environmental factors that can make it so tough to shed pounds and keep them off. It will highlight new scientific knowledge about hunger, eating and human metabolic operations.