Change a Child’s Life

The Childhood Development Center caters to the multiple interests of every child by offering a full schedule of exciting, fun activities for them to participate in.  Aside from socializing on the playground, children will benefit artistically from the arts and crafts activities, “busy bodies and music makers’, creative story times, group games, movie nights, and volunteers even read them bedtime stories before they go home for the day. 

Unfortunately, not every family is fortunate enough to be able to afford the luxury of giving their child the chance to delve into all that the YMCA has to offer.  To ensure that children are given the life-changing opportunity to participate, the YMCA has developed the Youth Scholarship Campaign, designed to raise money for outreach within the community.  It is the single most important source of funds needed in order to sustain these services.

Because the YMCA is a non-profit organization, this tax-deductible charity allows for 100% of the profits to go to the children that need it most. The money goes towards “y-camp”, aquatics class, youth sports, and teen programs.  Over half of Central Florida YMCA members are able to participate due to the financial assistance the Youth Scholarship program offers. In 2006 alone, 6,000 volunteers and donors raised over $2.2 million, allowing over 30,000 individuals to be impacted by this important cause. This year, they have set the bar higher, hoping to reach out to more people within the community, helping them grow in spirit, mind, and body.

There are several ways that you can impact a child’s life by sponsoring them at the YMCA.  You can provide a child with a session of swim lessons, or you can send a child to summer day camp for a week. Some people chose to support 6 weeks of Safe Start Drowning Prevention for a child from a family in need, potentially saving their life.  You can provide a teen or a senior adult with an annual membership, or you can even bring an entire family together by offering them all a membership at the YMCA. Alternatives to these great sponsorship opportunities include the opportunity to help children develop character and skills by sponsoring a team of 15 kids through Y-soccer, or you can fund the “Chairman’s Roundtable”-sending a cabin of 5 kids to Camp Wewa, where they will be able to make close friends, lasting memories, and will be surrounded by mentors.  Many of these children are in positions where a mentor can change their lives completely, driving them to succeed in life. 

Because of the YMCA’s promise of confidentiality, nobody will ever know who is a sponsored child and who is not, allowing a leveled playing ground from the start.  This helps children tremendously, in that it ensures that they will not feel like outcasts at such an impressionable, fragile age-healthy socialization at such a young age helps to assure that they will grow to be strong, confident adults.  The YMCA volunteers are always making sure they respond to the current needs of the physiological and social environment.  Today’s most impending issue is childhood obesity, and so the staff has been trained in how to motivate children to stay active. The staff and volunteers at the YMCA all share the same profound core motto: “Strong Families, Strong Kids, Strong Communities,” and work hard to ensure that every child is given an equal opportunity to become a healthy, well-rounded, happy individual, and with your help, that opportunity can turn a child’s life completely around.