“Edgy,” says Sandra Ihlenfeld, in recalling herself as, “that teen who grew up smoking cigarettes under the high school bleachers.”

Today a community luminary in health and fitness as the executive director of the Butler County Family YMCA, Ihlenfeld admits, “I still have an edge, but it serves me well.”

Ihlenfeld’s journey from point A to today took about as many internal turns as international encounters.

It all started, at least in her memory, when she was 8.

Jane Hilliard, Ihlenfeld’s mother, was struck head-on by a drunken driver. She died June 4, 1976.

“The first thing I remember in life was her funeral,” says Ihlenfeld, a Butler native. “I have come to realize most people have memories younger than that, so I should too. But I don’t. I have no memories of her.”

For about 10 years after her mother’s death, Ihlenfeld says her family life was “very up in the air.”

Ihlenfeld says her father was an alcoholic, and her mother’s death, “forced him into a bar, and he stayed there until he died.”

As a child growing up, she recalls either being raised on a barstool or being unsupervised.

“It was a hard home situation,” says Ihlenfeld, who was the middle child to two brothers. “We were abandoned a lot of the time.”

Ihlenfeld says she tried to help raise her younger brother. But he followed his father’s alcoholism legacy and died about 20 years ago. “I disconnected the life support,” she said.

Ihlenfeld’s older brother became an opioid addict, who today is sober.

Ihlenfeld says, as a teen, she, too, was heading toward that same destination.

“I was all red hair and freckles, scrawny, wore my brothers’ clothes. And I had no advocate,” she said.

But something unexpected and special happened when Ihlenfeld was 15 years old: The captain of the football team asked her out on a date.

“All of the pretty girls wanted to go out with him, and he asked me out,” Ihlenfeld said of her future husband, Tom Ihlenfeld. “I remember eating dinner for the first time at his house. They had meatloaf and all sat down together. I thought I was in a Norman Rockwell painting.”

Ihlenfeld recalls bringing her younger brother to the date because there was no food in her own home.

Her future father-in-law, Warren Ihlenfeld, spent 40 years as a radio broadcaster. “In his big, booming voice, he prayed for his family,” Ihlenfeld said. “Tom’s parents took me in, and had no judgment. They still are the salt of the Earth.”

Soon after that first date, Tom Ihlenfeld introduced her to Westminster Presbyterian Church, where the couple would later wed and have all three of their own children baptized.

“I accepted Tom’s love and religion the same year,” Ihlenfeld said. “And my life did a complete 180.”

Fitness focus

Her fitness career started after Ihlenfeld gave birth to her first child, a daughter. Back them, ladies were encouraged to “eat for two” and Ihlenfeld retained a lot of unwanted weight after giving birth. Aerobics, new at the time, sounded fun, so she joined a class at the YMCA.

“Back then (1980), they used music they taped from the radio, commercials and all, on a cassette tape,” said Ihlenfeld, who lost 60 pounds in six months.

The aerobics class was a hit, drawing more than 50 students, when the instructor had to leave due to an injury.

“She asked me if I wanted to teach it,” Ihlenfeld said. “Then, you didn’t need any types of certifications. There really weren’t even any to get.”

Ihlenfeld went on to teach aerobics outside the YMCA until she returned in 1997, after answering an ad in the newspaper. By then, you needed certification. And within two years, she decided to become a personal trainer, successfully earning the personal trainer certification from the American Council on Exercise.

“I memorized the book to pass with the highest grade point average in Pennsylvania,” Ihlenfeld said.

Core strength

At first, Ihlenfeld said the gym really was men’s turf. But in 1999, when the YMCA built its new wing, ladies found it more inviting and there was an influx.

“The program expanded really fast,” said Ihlenfeld, who initiated a weight-training class called, “Core Strength” specifically to give women an opportunity to weight train. “Every time registration was open, the line was out the door.”

Ihlenfeld blossomed in her role of teaching women to get strong, “not just muscle and bones, but I noticed this was giving them confidence and an opinion of self so they could take on things they thought they could not do.”

In 2001, Ihlenfeld was promoted to her first full-time position at the YMCA. As “health and well-being director,” she learned to manage income versus needs.

“As a new director, I wanted my staff to be knowledgeable,” Ihlenfeld said. “I became a YMCA trainer so that I can teach my staff.”

Then she became a statewide trainer, then a national trainer. And before you know it, “I got a call from Taiwan.”

Expanding horizons

With the support of her husband and family, Ihlenfeld taught the world, visiting Taiwan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jerusalem and England.

“The first time I went out, I felt like Dorothy coming out of Kansas,” Ihlenfeld said. “So many different customs, and weathers and foods. And what I learned is that I love diversity. My travel was life changing for my understanding of self.”

Ihlenfeld said she also realized she wanted to learn more to teach more.

“So at 43, I enrolled at Slippery Rock University in exercise science and for eight years I went to school and worked full time at the Y,” Ihlenfeld said. “I graduated in 2010, with an exercise science degree and minor in business administration.”

Ihlenfeld followed that up by earning her master’s degree in disease prevention and health promotion from the University of Pittsburgh. She graduated in 2014 at the top of her class.

“It’s been all so good in just being able to give all that knowledge back,” said Ihlenfeld, who accepted her fifth YMCA job title in 2018: executive director.

‘Servant’s heart’

She still teaches five classes a week and hopes to set an example for those who may be watching. She said she has a “servant’s heart” and her future will take her to where there is a need.

“I want to give, teach, inspire, empower. I want to lead leaders,” she said.

“I serve where I am asked to serve. This position (executive director), the leadership was necessary … I’m OK if that is what we need. In the future I would love to help my hometown be healthier. I’d like to form partnerships and focus on goals to becoming healthier. Now, I want to help the Y help the community.”