Hurricanes Harvey and Irma left behind a path of devastation in Southeast Texas and Southwest Florida, impacting peoples’ lives and communities. In each region, their local YMCAs stepped up to the challenge of helping people in their areas deal with being flooded out of their homes, losing power, and working to recover and rebuild.
To help with the recovery efforts, the Bethlehem YMCA will hold special events to raise donations for the YMCA of Greater Houston and the YMCA of Southwestern Florida. On Sunday, Sept. 24, the Bethlehem Y will hold a day of activities where you will have the opportunity to donate to victims of hurricane Harvey and Irma.
The schedule of events includes a swimathon from 3 to 5 p.m.; Boot camp with Connor from 4 to 5 p.m.; a Zumbathon from 5 to 6 p.m.; and Ice Skating from 4:45 to 6:45 p.m. All funds from the public skating will go to hurricane relief, and there will be suggested donations from other events. There will also be a raffle of gifts and prizes as well including tickets to Disney’s Frozen on Ice, and a free professional photo portrait session.
The YMCA of Greater Houston serves an area the size of New Jersey. With a population of 6.5 million people. During the hurricane, the area received more than 9 trillion gallons of water due to Harvey. Like thousands of homes and businesses in the Houston area, the YMCA facilities suffered severe flooding. After five days, more than 14 Houston-area Ys reopened to serve their communities and help with the recovery efforts by providing a place to work out, shower, have coffee, use a phone, or just to see a smiling face.
In addition, Houston YMCA staff helped sort tons of donated clothing, food, and supplies, and provided childcare and programming for thousands of people in area shelters. Y staff also provided childcare for employees of the regional utility who worked around the clock to restore power.
Paul McEntire, President and CEO of the Houston area YMCA said: “We’ve worked hard to get our facilities open and make them accessible. We slept about 75 firefighters in our meeting space and 50 National Guard troops that stationed at another Y. Our goal as a YMCA is to serve our community in any way we can. So many people nationally have been so generous to us and I want to give your our commitment that we continue to stretch those resources as far as they can go so we make a difference in every person’s life that we possibly can. Thank you for all you are doing for us and Houston will not forget you.”
Christina Naletko, Director of Marketing for the YMCA of Southwestern Florida said: “We set up a day camp for children in our community because all of our schools were closed. We served kids a hot breakfast and lunch every day when they had no power at home. We provided charging stations and supported food banks. It was truly amazing to see our entire community and the YMCA staff coming together to help others. I drove around our community and saw neighbor helping neighbor and it really gave me hope.”
The YMCAs in Houston and Florida are doing their part to help respond to the needs of their communities and help people rebuild their lives. The Bethlehem YMCA wants to support them and we hope you will consider coming to our Y on September 24th to work out and, by doing so, donating to a good cause.
— Mark Hansen