Our Youth find leadership and health education reaches for beyond our YMCA walls.

Kit Sathong, our former Go 5-2-1-0 Program Coordinator at the Regional YMCA, taught children about nutrition and the importance of fitness. For Kit, the job was much more than teaching kids.

“When I was five years old, my family emigrated from Thailand. Soon after our arrival, my father left us and my mom had to build a foundation for a life in America – teaching herself English,attending night school, and working as a CNA.

I easily assimilated to the culture in the US, but had a hard time connecting with peers, and had little influence or instruction in my life. I diligently looked for some kind of change and found it when I started working at the YMCA’s Camp Greenknoll at 16.

It was there that I realized that although my foundation had been fractured, my situation was not unique. That’s when I resolved to become a positive influence. Both at camp and in my first year of teaching in the SCRAM program, I’ve built meaningful relationships with the children I work with. The opportunity to teach is fun, but the opportunity to get to know the kids, encourage them and influence them is revolutionary.

Working at the Y has been an impactful experience; it’s the place I discovered my potential, where I learned that limitations can be exceeded, despite our backgrounds.”

Give to enable young people achieve their potential.