40 for 40 Member Stories
We are celebrating 40 years of the Ketchum Downtown YMCA with 40 stories from our community! Read more below to learn more about our vibrant Ketchum-Downtown YMCA family.
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The Քեթչում-Դաունթաուն YMCA և click here to view more member stories!
Atarah W.
Hi, my name is Atarah, and the way in which the Y has impacted my life that I wasn’t expecting is through community. Honestly, I joined the Y because of Pickleball. I was thinking I was just going to play pickleball and go home, but I met so many people here from so many different walks of life in the Pickleball community. And just as Y members in general-I’ve been able to make new friends, participate in activities outside of the Y, really rebuild my life post-pandemic with friendships, opportunities to volunteer-I am passionate about volunteering, and investing in my community. I wasn’t expecting to get all of that here at the Y, so it’s been a really exciting change; it’s brought a lot of value to me personally, and I’ve been able to take what’s been given to me as a member of the Y and put that back into my community and pay it forward.
Carlos A.
Hello, my name is Carlos. I’ve been coming to the Y for almost about a year now. What differentiates the Y to every other gym that I’ve ever been to is the feeling of family here. Someway, somehow, everybody just feels very bonded. Especially now that I’ve joined Pickleball. I feel welcome all the time,-so yeah, that’s my story behind that.
Carrie L.
Hi, my name is Carrie and I’ve been a member of the YMCA since I think 2015, and I cannot overstate the impact of the Y being a member of the Y on me and my family. When my daughter was really little being able to come to the Y and know that she was going to be in great hands in the childcare while I went and got some much needed exercise, was just like, it made all the difference in our lives, and we’ve just continued on here through the years. My daughter loves to come work out here and I love playing pickleball here. The pickleball community has also just been like phenomenal for me. It’s like you get to play this sport and you get to meet all these great people and make all these connections that go far beyond the Y. So, you know, I just I really, honestly cannot say enough about how much I love the Y. I just feel like my, my people come here. Like I find I find the people who I really resonate with here. So I’m I am just the hugest fan. I will always be a member.
Judy M.
Hi, my name is Judy, and I am a member of the YMCA for 30 years this year-I joined in 1996. I started at the Hollywood Wilshire YMCA and I joined specifically to play basketball. I played there for 20 years, and in those 20 years, I got to know a lot of the guys there. I was one of the only women playing, and I got to watch them and their kids grow up. After the pandemic, I joined the Downtown YMCA, and now I have a whole new group of young men I play basketball with-and I am going to play basketball again today! I just enjoy the Y and it had had a huge impact on my life-It has saved me, it has healed me, it has made me stronger.
Mekah K.
Hi, my name is Mekah, and the Y has helped me grow in many ways; Physically, mentally, and socially. The warm and welcoming community of the Ketchum Y has helped me just open myself up to try different things. The pool time has a third week, tea time every third Friday, and it’s been amazing getting to know all these people and working on my mental health and also getting stronger. I’ve learned so many recipes that I’ve met from the people here that I will be trying out at home and using for the rest of my life.
Misch T.
Hi, my name is Misch and the impact that the Downtown Ketchum Y has had on me is, is huge really. So I don’t like to exercise actually. But I do like to play և I like to feel good. And the Ketchum Y is a place where I can come and play and feel good, and it has a huge impact on my day and on my week in my life. I call this place my feel good machine, because all I have to do is show up and I always leave feeling better. In particular, I really like the people here. The staff are terrific and the members here are from all different walks of life. I’m in classes with people of all ages, all fitness levels, all abilities, and you know, we just have fun together and we exercise together. And we’ve actually created like a real sense of community. I think sometimes for people who don’t necessarily or don’t even realize that it’s kind of happening and might be a little bit shy, they’re like, “oh, I know people’s names and they know mine and I feel like I maybe am seen here,” and they come back. So I think that’s one of the things I really like is that I know that not only does this have an impact on me, but I can also see the impact that it’s having on lots of people around me. So one of my favorite stories is that we made our own water fitness class a couple years ago. The Y lost our fitness class instructor and director and we went without one for a while. And, but there was one of our members who was coming to class, and whenever she came to class, she would just kind of volunteer to sort of lead the class for us. And, so after a while we thought, you know, gosh, we should ask the why to give her a free membership or something, because she’s basically our instructor, and she liked the idea, and she liked the idea so much that she decided to apply to become our official instructor. And she went through certification and all the necessary paperwork and everything. And now she is one of our regular teachers of water fitness and in addition to that, that got kind of the momentum going as well for the Y to hire a second water fitness instructor. And we went from having no instructors and just kind of like a do it yourself class kind of whenever. To having… We’ve got morning classes for one hour every day of the Monday through Friday week, and we’ve added an evening class because so many people were coming and saying, “oh, we can only come for like the two weeks were on vacation right now, but we love this. We want more.” And so they added an evening class. And so there’s opportunity here for people to get involved and to say, “hey, we want to do this thing.” Oh, and we also meet for tea once a month. And, and it’s just fun after our, we call it, I call it our swimmies class. Where we just…We bring tea and treats and stuff like that, and we just hang out for a few minutes. And we’ve gotten to share all kinds of amazing stories and learn neat things about these people that you know, otherwise, we’re just like doing jumping jacks together and, you know, throwing, throwing the ball around in the pool and stuff. So, so it’s just a really cool example, I think, of what can happen here.
Razeen N.
Hi, my name is Razeen, and what pulled me into the Y and what me stay is that I was a Summer Camp Counselor for the Y in Baltimore back in 2024. And honestly, the people, the workers, the environment, the activities-it just made me never want to leave this place. And even when I’m out here in Cali, I’m still with the Y, as you can see in Ketchum, and I’m loving it. It’s amazing out here!
Tony D.
Hi, my name is Tony. I’m a blind athlete. Coming here to the Ketchum Y since 2014. I started coming here because I was getting ready to do my first marathon and my first Iron Man. And the Y was very welcoming. It really made me feel almost like if I didn’t have a disability, they made everything super accessible for me, from swimming to the bike classes, the spin classes, running on the treadmill. There was just not one class that they didn’t see or figure out how I can do it as a blind person. I love the Y and I wanted to say thank you. A year after I started coming here to the Y, I had the opportunity to get my first guide dog, Diana. She was a beautiful, beautiful black lab. And just as the Y was welcoming to me-they were super welcoming to Diana. She became not only my guide dog, but she became the Y, the Y mascot. Funny story is that, for a couple of years, everyone knew Diana and they would come and they would say, hi. “Hey, Diana. How are you doing?” Get up and leave and not even acknowledge that I was there. A great friend of mine, Gary. Same thing. For a couple of years, he would always come, pet Diana, as everyone did. Finally, he was like, “You know, it’s been a couple of years that I come and say hi to your guide dog. I should probably tell you who I am.” But that’s just the way it was. Diana was loved by everybody, including everyone here at the Y. They had treats for her. She gained quite a few pounds until I had to put a stop to all the treats. I was with her for ten years, all of them here at the Y, until she went to doggie heaven. And I wanted to say thank you again to the Y for loving Diana as much as and probably more than they loved me.
