Participants in the YMCA After Breast Cancer program celebrate life at the annual fashion show fundraiser
Most in the area know that the local YMCA offers a fitness room, basketball gym and swimming pool.
But the staff and supporters of the Rutherford County Family YMCA want the community to know that the Y’s mission is about much more than fun and games.
The YMCA is home to many ministries and outreach efforts; these programs include After Breast Cancer (ABC), a support program offered free to local breast cancer survivors. ABC operates in conjunction with the Wig Bank at Top of the Block Salon, which provides wigs to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
“God blows my socks off!” said YMCA After Breast Cancer Director Melanie Cavender regarding her being given the opportunity to serve and assist other breast cancer survivors.
The ABC program hosted this year’s fashion show, celebrating survivors and raising funds and awareness for the program, at New Vision Church on Thursday, Oct. 2.
Local residents can also take advantage of the YMCA’s Restore Ministries, which includes various small group meetings that focus on a specific area of healing.
“Restore’s small groups offer an opportunity to make changes to anything that causes dissatisfaction if your life,” according to its mission statement. “Past participants have been able to address challenges related to their relationships and family dynamics, careers, weight/food/body image issues, grief, pornography, anxiety and much more.”
A lady dealing with guilt and pain surrounding the murder of her son went through a group called Journey to Freedom.
The Restore group meets at the YMCA to focus on healing
“I feel like I have been freed from a prison,” said the program participant.
Furthermore, the Full Circle program provides swim lessons for children with special needs, and other opportunities for them and their parents to grow in body, mind and spirit.
“Some see the swimming and that we have memberships, and don’t realize this, but very near our hearts is the mission of community service,” YMCA Executive Director Merida Balch told a group of local businesspeople and YMCA supporters earlier this year.
Aside from these Murfreesboro ministries dedicated to directly improving the lives of its participants, the YMCA as a whole has added a lot of fun to the American culture, Balch points out; basketball was started at a YMCA by the sport’s creator, James Naismith (volleyball, softball and racquetball also have their roots in the Y), the Y can claim the first indoor swimming pool (which opened in 1885 at a YMCA in Brooklyn), and the YMCA was also instrumental in starting the boy scouts.
“We accept all, but want to keep the Christian principles and values,” Balch said.
The Rutherford County Family YMCA is also a major area employer.
“We employ roughly 100 people in the school year,” Balch said.
While membership fees bring in much of the money to operate, the YMCA does rely on donations from local businesses and individuals so it can offer support programs and financial assistance to low-income families who could benefit from their services (even the Murfreesboro Athletic Club, which in a sense competes with the YMCA for fitness-center members, donates to the YMCA, and participates in its events, such as the annual Corporate Dodgeball Tournament).
Balch emphasizes that all pledges from the Murfreesboro community stay in the local branch of the Y.
“Any funding that comes in stays in this center,” she said of the Murfreesboro Y.
The Rutherford County Family YMCA is located at 205 N. Thompson Lane, Murfreesboro. For more information, find them on Facebook or visitymcamidtn.org; to donate to the cause, contact Camille Mickle at cmickle@ymcamidtn.org or (615) 895-5995.
