Crocker St. YMCA

And the Winner Is….


Austin McNeeley from the Des Moines area. Austin registered before the April 30th deadline for our contest during the month. He wins a free session of camp! Congratulations to Austin and his family.



A look into History

This past weekend I had an awesome opportunity. I had the chance to attend the Crocker St. YMCA Banquet. Now if you don’t know there is no longer a Crocker St. YMCA. The banquet is held annually to commemorate the Crocker St. Y and its history. It is a long and wonderful history and to find out more about it, there is currently a display at Fort Des Moines that gives a wonderful visual. The Crocker St. Y was started as a YMCA for the African American community in the Des Moines area in the 1930’s. Although such a thought seems foreign to us now, the idea at the time was considered highly progressive. Every year there was a week for the children of Crocker St. at the Des Moines Y Camp. This is why I had the opportunity to be there, to represent Y Camp. It was phenomenal to me to be able to hear their stories of Y Camp. There was a ton of conversation about camp, and the Keynote of the evening even talked about his experiences at Y Camp. The campers would board the inter-urban railroad train to make their way up to camp, and some of my favorite stories revolved around the train ride. Apparently the custom was for all of the returning campers to rock the train while on the high bridge to scare all the first year campers. Then there was the story of Sam McGee (no longer something we do at camp), which is basically a ghost story that would scare the devil out of all the campers. But above all my favorite stories revolved around hearing about their friendships. They mentioned other campers and Y Camp Leaders by name over and over again. It was wonderful. It made me realize that although camp has changed a lot over the years, it is still for all. Y Camp is still about building friendships. This has never once changed, and it never will. It made me realize how great it is going to be that someone 25 or 30 years from now, or even more, will be up in front of a group of people talking about Y Camp and how it has had an impact on their lives. That is just an awesome legacy. Thank you to those involved with the Crocker St. YMCA for allowing me to be a part of your evening, and your story.