Campaign benefits families
The Butler Road Race has impacted more than feet.
The race has provided thousands of young track and field athletes with scholarships over the years. But now the race — and its impact on the community — is sprinting in a new direction.
Proceeds from the 2018 race and beyond will go toward the YMCA's Strong Kids Campaign, which offers underprivileged children and their families financial assistance for its membership and programs.
The Butler Road Race will also provide exposure and awareness for the charity, which is important because too often the YMCA is thought to be only a gym, said Francine Mills, executive director of the Butler YMCA.
What people don't usually see, Mills said, is the effort that the staff puts into reaching out to the community, and that's what they are trying to improve on for the future of the race and the campaign.
“It's all about education,” she said. “People are starting to see it a little better.”
Last year, the Butler County YMCAs provided $298,208 in assistance to 1,986 members and program participants. Last year's campaign raised around $200,000, according to Mills.
“We give out more than we raise, and that's why we're more than a gym,” she said.
Frank Cicco, member of the Butler County YMCA's board of directors and chairman of the Strong Kids Campaign, said the program is meant to help the families who are struggling or who don't make enough to take advantage of the YMCA's programs.
“No one gets a free ride, but they could be supported up to 75 percent,” he said.
Cicco said the campaign has always been around, but may have existed under different names.
He said most in Butler County didn't really need the program, but in the mid-1990s the demographics of downtown Butler shifted. He said Butler may be the most noticeable, but others at the Slippery Rock and Cranberry Township locations also need help.
Cicco said the need revealed itself in the form of drugs and bad choices. He said he realizes this every time he hears a siren while at his home near the Butler City Fire Department.
“I hear the fire trucks leave every day; it's not a fire,” Cicco said.
Cicco said when the program began revamping in the 1990s, it was struggling with low donations, recalling one year that yielded only $9,000. He said he is more optimistic now with having seen the larger figures in recent years.
“We've really made a push to fill that void,” he said.
Cicco said people tend to think the charity is only for children, but the staff understands that a healthy family is essential to children's developments.
“Calling it the Strong Kids Campaign is a general term,” he said. “It's turned into a lot more families.”
Mills said some families are able to recover while under the financial assistance and become supporters of the program.
“A lot of those families do (get better), and then they pay it forward,” Mills said.
Although the application is discretely given to those interested and confidential once applied for, Mills said the key to reaching these families is usually through the children because the parents are either afraid or embarrassed to ask for help or they don't know about it.
Mills said the staff is trying new things to create interactions for the children, such as sending staff and volunteers to playgrounds, which gives them a chance to experience what the YMCA can offer.
“Getting outside our doors, we need to continue to do that because the need isn't going to show up (at our doors),” she said.
Mills said the staff is also developing new programs that the campaign would benefit, such as an after-school mentoring program that would offer tutoring and snacks. She said the campaign is the base from which they need to build.
“The Strong Kids Campaign is crucial for us to start and continue these programs.”
Mills said they are doing great considering where they were 10 or 15 years ago, but noted that the goal should be to meet the needs of the children. She said the staff needs to continue to market the program because it is essential to move forward.
One way they have marketed the charity is through a shirt adorned with a Bible verse — “The light shines in the darkness,” John 1:5.
Mills said proceeds from the purchase of every shirt goes to the campaign, but the raising of awareness that the charity exists is the main goal.
“We talk about how we want to be a light in Butler County,” she said. “We are trying to get better at telling our story.”
