Hello and Happy 2025,
Thanks to our generous donors, loyal members, and dedicated staff, 2024 was our most incredible year of community impact for the South Shore YMCA. As we kick off an already busy new year, I want to take a moment to share some highlights from 2024 and some exciting plans and news for the year ahead.
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
After sixteen years as President and CEO of the South Shore YMCA, I have decided to retire from the YMCA in January 2026. We are in our strongest position ever, and it is a tremendous honor to lead this dynamic organization and staff. I have never felt more confident in our team, our executive board, and our plans for a strong future.
As such, I am pleased to announce that I have promoted Trevor Williams to President of the South Shore YMCA. Trevor has served as our Chief Operating Officer since 2020 and was instrumental in navigating our Y through the pandemic to emerge stronger than ever. While I remain CEO, Trevor’s new role confirms that the success and strong foundation we have built for our Y are in good hands, ensuring a smooth transition as our Executive Board works to name our next CEO in 2026.
Additionally, we are excited to share the promotions of Alexandra Mason to Vice President of Human Resources, Katelyn Szafir to Vice President of Hale Operations, and Dan Berry to Vice President of Emilson Operations. All three are true YMCA professionals with decades of experience across the Y movement. Please join me in congratulating these individuals on their well-deserved promotions.
You’ll be hearing more from me with details on our vision and plans for 2025, and I look forward to working with this team on special projects to keep the South Shore Y growing strong to best serve our community.
2024 COMMUNITY IMPACT
Thanks to our donors, in 2024 we issued $2,032,647 in Financial Assistance through our Annual Campaign so that Y programs, camps, childcare and membership remain accessible to everyone in our community. A stunning $1.2 million was dedicated to membership financial assistance alone. We continue to prioritize affordability and access for our members and have not raised our rates since 2019.
During the winter of 2024, we completely reimagined our Health and Wellness experience for our 40,000+ Y members, with all new equipment, larger and redesigned studios, expanded strength and functional training equipment, new turf space and flooring, and new programming. And we aren’t stopping there. Our team continues to introduce new products and refresh our equipment and program offerings to best serve our members.
The Taste of the South Shore 2024 raised over $365,000 to ensure vital sports programs and camps are available to local kids. Co-hosted by Karen and Rob Hale, our premier tasting and fundraising event was held at the Hale Family Y for the first time in its history, with over 550 guests attending and Chef Brian Houlihan from EAT Local taking home “Top Taste.” Be sure to mark your calendars for The Taste 2025 on May 7, 2025.
We welcomed 5,430 campers last summer to our day and overnight camps, and our annual Send a Kid to Camp appeal and Golf Classic event at Pinehills Golf Club raised over $230,000 to bring the life-changing experience of camp to kids who need it most.
At our President’s Club Social in September, we launched a new era for our South Shore YMCA Nature Center with the ribbon cutting of our new Nature Center Preschool building, a four-classroom preschool that is the latest completed project from our Leave Your Mark capital campaign. In 2025, we will unveil plans to restore our original Nature Center building to expand nature-based programming for the community.
October was Staystrong Month, and as we celebrated our fifth year of this collaborative community cancer support program, we hosted group exercise events that helped raise $110,000 in 2024 for this life-changing program, which has helped 2,105 participants and family members. At our 2024 staff appreciation event, it was a pleasure to present Emilson Y fitness instructor, Annie Donovan, with the first annual Stacey Cross Hugues Staystrong Award, recognizing the extraordinary dedication and service of an individual affiliated with Staystrong.
With the rising costs of groceries, our Food Pantry at the SSYMCA Germantown Neighborhood Center was busier than ever, distributing 475,000 pounds of food to an average of 1,500 individuals and 661 families each week. We continue to teach the community to grow healthy, organic fruits and vegetables at our Family Farm in Hanover and our Germantown Gardens, and all produce harvested is donated to the community.
We ended the year with our most impactful tradition of all, our Hope for the Holidays wish list program, a volunteer-led effort that matches the holiday wish lists of local children in need with generous donors to help fulfill their wishes for a brighter holiday. Over 1,000 children received holiday gifts, warm coats, hats, and gloves this year. Our volunteers also helped us package and distribute 500 Thanksgiving meals to local families.
At our 2024 Holiday Celebration, we celebrated years of profound community impact and a legacy of leadership as we recognized retiring Executive Board members, Doug Briggs, Steve Briggs, and Alex Clark, who have served an incredible 35, 40, and 50 years of service, respectively. Doug Briggs left his mark through his personal generosity and the unwavering corporate support he brought as President of Quincy Mutual Group. Steve Briggs, like his brother, attended the Y’s Camp Burgess as a young man and has spent four decades as its champion, as well as being an avid fundraiser for the Y’s participation in the Rodman Ride for Kids. Alex Clark followed the legacies of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of whom served on the Y Executive Board. Alex grew up with the Y, but more importantly, he grew up with the Y mission. Alex is the first to volunteer, the first to give whether annual or capital, and the first to speak up in support of the Y. Heartfelt thanks to all for their dedication to our Y and our mission.
A LOOK AHEAD
As we look ahead to 2025 and beyond, we are proud that our Y is in its strongest position ever. Plans to expand and grow for our community are underway, and our next big capital project is a 20,000 square-foot expansion of the Hale Family YMCA building on Coddington Street. As this building celebrates its 10th anniversary, we find that the expanding needs of a growing community require more space. The new addition will add a brand-new gymnastics center, which is missing in the city of Quincy, plus new teen programming space and a large-scale group exercise studio.
To learn how you can get involved and leave your mark on this and other transformational projects at our Y, contact our Chief Development Officer, Mary Orne at morne@ssymca.org.
I look forward to sharing more of what is ahead for our Y and our community, and I thank you for your continued support of the South Shore YMCA.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Gorman
CEO, South Shore YMCA