How many people can say they look more fabulous at 100 than they did when they were 25?
How many people have a song about them — complete with hand motions — that’s a crowd-pleaser at every baseball game?
The YMCA got its start in London in 1844, but it wasn’t until 1901 that a group of young men were able to make it official in a rough and tumble town called Everett. YMCA branches are all over the county now. But there’s still plenty of reason to pause before the end of the year to wish the Everett YMCA a happy birthday.
The small organization started out with a gymnasium, Bible studies and educational classes. Later on, it even offered naturalization classes. A history of the YMCA of Snohomish County, by local educator and writer Larry O’Donnell, depicts an organization, indeed a townspeople, determined to make the club survive even in the worst of times. Looking at the branch’s founders and, later on, the lists of its solid supporters is like reading a who’s who of Everett. People who have been here for a while will recognize names like Duryee, Howarth, Jackson and Sievers.
From the beginning, the organization was all about clean, healthy living. In 1905 general secretary Robert Carey told the board the association "has done a great service to the community by counteracting the influence of the slot machines, pool rooms, dance halls and other demoralizing places, that are using every possible means to entice our young boys and men … One member of the high school faculty remarked to me at one time that the high school boys seemed like a different lot of students after the YMCA was opened; they straightened up, had their hair combed and looked clean."
Today’s YMCA may not make pronouncements against pool rooms and dance halls or focus as much on the grooming of today’s youth, but its motto, "We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities," promotes the same solid values that its founders established.
Celebrating the 100th birthday of our YMCA is really a lesson in celebrating our city and its history. Any organization that does that for a community has already proven its worth and necessity.
Happy Birthday, Everett YMCA, and thank you.
Baseball games are a ways off. But you can still hum the jingle on your own. C’mon, you know you want to. We’ll help you get started.
"Young man, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, ‘cause you’re in a new town
There’s no need to be unhappy. …
It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A.
It’s fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A."
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