SOUTH SHORE YMCA

SOUTH SHORE YMCA ANNUAL CAMPAIGN 2020

Posted: Feb. 14, 2020 Donate

South Shore YMCA Launches 2020 Annual Campaign to Strengthen Our Community

NORWELL MA, FEBRUARY 14, 2020 – Today, the South Shore YMCA has launched its annual fundraising campaign to expand community access to Y programs, resources and vital services that ensure everyone can belong and thrive within the South Shore community.

South Shore YMCA leadership, executive board members, volunteers and staff gathered together at Laura’s Center for the Arts at the Emilson YMCA campus on February 13 to kick off campaign and celebrate its community impact.

The Y’s Annual Campaign helps fund programs that address major issues facing our local community such as physical and mental well-being, medical wellness, water safety, child care and protection, senior health, hunger, teen & youth engagement, and family support services.

Throughout the campaign, which runs February 14 – April 24, 2020, volunteers representing the Y will reach out personally to members of our community for support. Individuals and businesses are invited to contact or tour any South Shore YMCA location to learn how their donations can have lasting positive impact on the lives around them.

“Across the South Shore, thousands know and depend on the Y. There’s so much good that happens here,” said Jim Dunphy, President of South Shore Bank, a member of the Y’s Executive Board and co-chair for the 2020 Annual Campaign.

“Most people don’t know the full expanse of the work the Y does to serve the South Shore,” said Dunphy. “The Y is a leading charitable organization, and donations to the Y’s Annual Campaign make it possible to do amazing things, like feed the hungry through our food pantry, provide job training and support to families facing poverty, give working families access to camps and quality child care through Early Learning Centers and financial assistance programs, develop inclusive and adaptive programming, give teens a safe place to go, and support our neighbors and seniors facing physical and mental health issues.”

2020 Annual Campaign Co-Chairs Effie Lee and Jim Dunphy

The South Shore YMCA focuses on nine causes, including teens, seniors, families, inclusion, water safety, camp, medical wellness, farms and environmental education, and social services. “When we all contribute, we can make major impacts in all of these areas to strengthen our community,” said Effie Lee, chair of the Y’s Social Services Cause Advisory Board and co-chair of the 2020 Annual Campaign. “We can open the doors to all, create a community of inclusion, and positively affect more local lives in countless ways.”

One hundred percent of all donations received through the Y’s Annual Campaign are returned to the local community through program funding and financial assistance. In 2019, charitable gifts from South Shore YMCA donors to the Annual Campaign made it possible for 667 cancer survivors including family members to participate at no cost in the Y’s new Staystrong community support program, 4,739 children to become water safe, 3,000 seniors to engage in active, healthy exercise and medical wellness programs, and more than 550 children to receive gifts during the holiday season.

At the Y’s Annual Campaign kick-off event, guest speaker Leslie Bridson, McKinney-Vento Homeless Liasion for Quincy Public Schools, spoke of the impact the Annual Campaign has on local families.

Leslie Bridson, McKinney-Vento Homeless Liasion for Quincy Public Schools

“I work with families and students who are experiencing significant hardship, significant need. Need that none of us will hopefully ever have to experience ourselves. If we do, I hope there are resources such as the South Shore Y to help these families out,” said Bridson. “These students are from all schools, from the littles in preschool all the way to seniors in high school. Some are homeless, some are removed from their homes because of trauma, neglect and abuse.”

Bridson added, “I use the Y all the time, year after year, with financial help for Y Memberships. A YMCA family membership to a family that is living in a hotel, or in a shelter, that have little ones that don’t know how to swim, don’t know how to play. For them, a Y family membership is truly a lifeline.”

“Everybody wants to know, do you know where the money goes? Is it getting to the people who are supposed to get it? I can reassure you, the campership money, the teen money, the Germantown Neighborhood center, all the fundraising that you are doing, I can assure you that it gets to those families, those moms who have nothing, those kids who have nothing, in Quincy and across the South Shore.”

The success of the Y’s 2020 Annual Campaign will be celebrated at the Taste of the South Shore, the South Shore YMCA’s premiere social and tasting event. “To thank our donors for their support, this year the South Shore YMCA will give two complimentary tickets to The Taste for those who give $500 or more to the Annual Campaign,” added Dunphy.

To give to the South Shore YMCA’s 2020 Annual Campaign, visit www.ssymca.org/donate.

To learn more about the Y and its causes, contact Mary Orne, Vice President of Development at 781-264-9400 ext. 3306 or morne@ssymca.org.

 

About the South Shore YMCA

The South Shore YMCA is a leading charitable organization dedicated to strengthening community through programs that promote healthy spirit, mind, and body. Serving the communities of Quincy, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Braintree, Milton, Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell, Hanover and beyond, the South Shore Y provides the opportunity to grow, learn, and thrive through its services and programs. Financial Assistance is a Y community benefit available to all families in need, applicable to all Y programs and services. To learn more about the South Shore YMCA, visit www.ssymca.org. The South Shore YMCA. The Better You Belongs Here.