YMCA honored for Community Champion role
The Butler County Family YMCA won this year's Community Champion Award during a downtown picnic luncheon Wednesday.
Every year, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce awards a nonprofit for its involvement in and its betterment of the community.
Chamber board members nominate nonprofits, officers whittle the list down to a few options and then a group of about 30 former chamber presidents select the year's winner.
Sandra Ihlenfeld, vice president of organizational advancement of the Butler YMCA, accepted the award on behalf of the organization.
“We've been here 130 years,” Ihlenfeld said. “We're not leaving. We're planning to keep doing what we do as well as we can do it.”
The inscribed award states that the Butler YMCA “provided a positive foundation to thousands of people in Butler County for more than 130 years.”
The organization, according to Ihlenfeld, serves to implement Christian values in the community.
To accomplish that goal, Connie Downs, YMCA marketing and communications director, said the organization has to look at local data and research and see what the Butler area needs most.
The organization recently started programming in five areas specifically to respond to problems it uncovered. Those, Downs said, are programs geared toward diabetes management, weight loss, blood pressure management, preventive exercise and Parkinson's disease management.
“We're purposely running those because there is such a need in this area,” Downs said.
The YMCA is also providing a free space for a heroin support group.
Downs said the organization's various branches have a total of about 23,000 members.
Karen Brackett of NexTier Bank and the chamber's board of directors presented the award.
“For communities to be successful, everyone should have the opportunity to be healthy, confident, connected and secure,” Brackett said.
Stan Kosciuszko, the chamber's president, said the chamber has been giving the award for more than 10 years. Recent winners include the Butler County Historical Society, the Butler County Symphony Orchestra and the Maridon Museum.
The ceremony took place under a large tent in Diamond Park and had about 50 attendees.
