YMCA Annual Dinner

From BJ Murray - Summer Camp Director

     This week we had the YMCA Annual Dinner.  It’s a great event held at the Downtown Marriot and the food is good, and it looks basically like what you would expect a large non-profit annual dinner would look like.  It is all done very well and you hear some great talks, and everyone is all dressed up (it’s cool and all, but I still hate wearing a suit and tie), but that is not the part that I enjoy.  It is the impact we see from Y Camp on those in attendance. 

Looking through the book they give us almost half of the names of the Service to Youth  award winners (the highest award a volunteer in the Des Moines Association can earn) are all camp folks.  We fill up almost four full tables of just camp people.  Plus, every year I am amazed that someone up front mentions the impact Y Camp had on them.  Whether it is through the Adventure Guides program campouts, or the role model that one of the leaders had on them, they talk about those memories and impact with a deep gratitude.

These people are some of the most respected and successful men and women in Des Moines, and they cherish camp as some of their fondest memories.  That’s impact.  That is what camp is able to create.  I believe we are still doing that today.  Camp truly does change and effect people on a deeper level.  It is something that stays with them, and it has nothing to do with a huge trip, an amusement park, a video game or a cell phone.  It is all about the relationships.  It is all about the character. It is all about good old fashioned fun.  It’s pure and it’s deep and that is what I am proud of. 

Thank you to all that have supported camp through the years and the contribution you have made to impacting children.  Maybe 20 years from now someone will be talking about you at the annual dinner.