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Greetings, fellow Y Members and Supporters,

On top of all the snow (or I should say, under it), it’s been an eventful first few weeks as the Y’s new communications director. On Jan. 19 – two days after I’d started -- we got some great, and long-awaited, news: The State Superior Court had upheld the Westport P&Z’s decision to grant a special permit for construction of the new Y facility at Mahackeno. The last of the legal challenges have been dismissed; we can now move forward with our plans to build the kind of Family Y that our members, and community, needs and deserves.

As Iain Bruce, president of our Family Y’s volunteer board of directors, said of the process leading up to that day: “We have made a lot of good decisions, and made them carefully, and this court decision reconfirms that we have done the right thing all along.”

The next day I joined my new colleagues in getting started on “Building What Matters.” That’s the spot-on name of the campaign being formulated to finalize (and fund) our Family Y’s continued role in our community over the next generations and determine what programs and services we want to offer inside our new building. It will take a lot of thought and hard work and will involve a lot of people. In truth, “Building What Matters” will involve us all.

In many ways my entry into the Y world is a continuation of a similar community-wide conversation that took place last year with the Longshore 50th Anniversary celebration. I’d like to think that effort helped show the whole town all that Longshore Club Park has been, is, and could be. After all, you don’t have to be a golfer, tennis player or sailor, or even to step foot in the park, to appreciate its value to the community -- just ask any real estate broker what an asset our “town-owned country club” is. What would Westport be without Longshore?

Same with the Westport Weston Family Y. You don’t have to be a member of our Y to recognize how essential its programs and services are to the people they serve, or how important a role it plays in helping make our community a special place to live. And as with Longshore, we all “know” the Y, but only in the way that it touches us personally.

My history with the Y started with the parent-child swim classes I took with my six-month-old son a decade ago. Since then, we’ve often enjoyed splashing about in the wonderfully warm Brophy pool, jumping off the diving board into the Stauffer pool and shooting hoops during open gym.

How was I to know that tucked away in the basement of the old Bedford building was the community’s largest provider of child care services? That the teachers – all women, with all kinds of college degrees and credentials – spend their days in what was once the men’s-only billiards room and bowling alley downstairs might seem a bit ironic, but it didn’t seem to matter one whit to all those tykes gathered around their little tables and chairs and play stations. (Is there a more charming sight than seeing a gaggle of four-year-olds caught up in their own little world?)


Caption: This undated photo shows the former pool hall at the Westport Weston Family Y. There was also a bowling alley in the basement level of the Bedford building, which now serves as the Family Y Child Care Center.

I made my way to the other end of the facility – through a maze of hallways and stairwells straight out of Hogwarts – to meet Sally Silverstein, senior director of the Sports & Recreation programs. Over the years Sally and her staff have built a nationally recognized gym program, practicing in a room with ceilings so low that only kids under five feet tall can use the uneven parallel bars. This summer, Sally will be taking a team of gymnasts to Switzerland, where they’ll take part in a world-class competition. Evidently, we’re the only Y team in the country that has been invited. Who knew?

The rest of the senior staff is just as impressive. Some I’ve met before-- like Ellen Johnston, the senior swim coach who stopped by to say hello and to catch up about my son, who she had taught years ago. In speaking with her, Aquatics Director Jacquie Tumminia and others, I had no idea what a big deal the Water Rats swim program is -- or how plugged in coaches like Ellen are at the highest levels of swimming nationally.

The best part of my job will be to help tell their stories, and the stories of the people whose lives they touch, from the scholarship swimmers they coach, to the special needs kids they teach, to the cancer survivors they help rehab, to the shelter residents whose lives they help restore. Those are the stories of our Y that haven’t been told of late, the stories that should be known.

Who around town doesn’t know Patty Kundub, the Y’s Aqua Fitness and Spin guru? I first met Patty while she was working the business end of a rake at Longshore’s spring-cleanup day with the Staples girl golfers she coaches. And I’m familiar with her involvement with SpinOddyssey, which raises serious amounts of money each year for breast cancer research. I’m happy to join her as a colleague, though I will have to accept the fact that I’ll always be a total Y newbie in her eyes. As I was interviewing for the job, the 25-year Y veteran gave me some good-natured grief about my ignorance of the court cases the Y has been dealing with for a decade. “Scott, it’ll be your job to know about all that!”

Yes, all that. Like most Westporters, I’ve followed the legal and psycho-drama over the years, tried to sort through the arguments, the noise. Frankly, I’m relieved to have joined the Y the very same week that we could put the past disputes behind us.

I’m not alone in my battle fatigue, nor in my sense of renewal: I was heartened to read the comments of Matt Mandell in one of the recent news article about the final court ruling: “To the YMCA folks, I say congrats. You too fought well. There were some tough moments and at times bad blood … We believe in something, we pick our issues, but in the end we are all one community and continue to live among each other. While I might not like the new location, I’m sure it will be a great place to use.”

Clearly, Westport is not the same place it was 50 years ago when it took the community’s leaders just 19 days to consider, approve by unanimous vote, the town’s purchase of Longshore Country Club. The epic debate over our Y’s future had to take its course, but I’d like to think that most people are now ready to begin focusing on "Building What Matters."

Leading the process will be the most experienced, eloquent voices from our Family Y. Over the coming weeks and months, Board President Iain Bruce, CEO Rob Reeves,and other Y volunteers and staffers will continue the ongoing dialogue among Y members, its supporters, charitable partners and other stakeholders in our community to Over the coming weeks and months, Board President Iain Bruce, CEO Rob Reeves,and other Y volunteers and staffers will continue the ongoing dialogue among Y members, its supporters, charitable partners and other stakeholders in our community to move forward with the construction plans for the new building and to crystallize the vision and the mission of our Family Y.

The vision thing. It’s long been Family Y policy to take the editorial high road, to not communicate its “messaging” through online forums and to largely restrict its comments in the papers to rebut errors of fact. That’s been a wise strategy, but it’s fair to say that policy has left some in the community feeling that the Y is reactive when it should be more proactive, on the sidelines when it should be shaping the debate, and silent when it should be stating clearly, if not loudly, the case to be made that the Y plays a unique role in providing essential services to our community. Tag lines change with the times and trends, but our Family Y has been, and will always be, simply this: a charitable non-profit organization committed to youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

The biggest surprise for me is finding out just how far-reaching our Y is in its involvement with so many facets of our community. Sure, it’s known to most of us as a place to “gym and swim;” less talked about is how our Family Y makes that possible (and more) for so many different people from different types of circumstances.

Did you know that last year our Family Y provided nearly $400,000 in direct aid (child care, membership, program subsidies) to 272 local families in need? We also make free memberships and camp scholarships available to the social services departments of Westport and Weston, who themselves work with some 1,200 families. Jennifer Perrault, who runs Camp Mahackeno, told me that we offered something like 80 weeks of free summer camp last year to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford that simple privilege.

Kids from Bridgeport swim here courtesy of the Horizons program, run through Greens Farms Academy. The formerly homeless men and women now living in the Gillespie Center are able to use the Family Y for free, as are the youngsters who are part of the Project Return and A Better Chance programs. Jump Start, a program run through Westport Human Services, gives adults parenting workshops while their children are cared for by our Family Y teachers. One of our newest partnerships is with Norwalk Hospital to create the Cancer Survivors Program, in which individuals in treatment are given 3-month free memberships and customized programming to support their recovery. The list goes on, but you get the picture. I look forward to helping more people see that, too.

It’s a homey, welcoming place to work and play, but let’s be frank: We all know our Family Y is woefully outmoded. The facilities guys do a great job keeping the heat on, to most of the building. Members and staff make do, but the facility is seriously deficient in terms of ADA access and the sort of modern amenities our communities expect (or demand) in other aspects of their lives. The cramped quarters limit membership – no small concern when nearly 90 percent of our budget comes from membership and program fees. We run a yearly deficit as is.

And parking? I’d say it’s a joke, but tiptoeing across the treacherous parking lot to get to work these past few weeks makes me feel sorry for the older, and littler, folks who have to navigate the icy, sloping pavement on their way to the door. Mr. Bedford, rest his soul, would surely agree that our Family Y – his Y – has long outgrown the street-corner hotel he bought for his community center nearly 90 years ago.

I’ve gone on long enough. It’s time to get back to work, to help start “Building What Matters.”

I look forward to hearing your stories of what our Family Y means to you – and how you believe we can best serve you, your family and our entire community, now and for future generations to come.


Scott Smith

Communications Director
Westport Weston Family Y

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203-226-8981, ext. 112



Contact us at: 203.226.8981 memberline@westporty.org