Upper Cape Cross Winds
News & Updates on the Upper Cape YMCA
Winter | 2021
In this Issue
-
Local Impact Story
-
Project Updates
-
TaskForce Spotlight
-
What’s Next?
Nature is Our Classroom in North Falmouth!
For Early Education students in North Falmouth, the world is their classroom, literally!
This fall, the YMCA Cape Cod constructed a Nature-Based Classroom at our North Falmouth Congregational Church Early Childhood Center. Nature based learning provides a sensory oriented experience designed to spark discovery and imagination. This outdoor classroom includes large scale hand made musical instruments and art easels which were designed and installed specifically for children in outdoor use.
Not only has this project been great for our students, but our teachers as well! Instructors from Falmouth Art Center & Cape Cod Symphony are working with the staff and children to orient them on the new instruments and provide art instruction including painting and drawing. For many students, this is their first formal exposure to the arts, and our outdoor environment offers sensations otherwise unattainable in an indoor classroom.
So far the two biggest hits have been the large chalkboard and the outdoor harp! “The children love the chalk board!!!! They use it everyday” said Kelley Loonan, Center Director at the North Falmouth Early Education Center. ” It is a wonderful addition which adds endless possibilities for creativity. We have just begun using the harp, and the children are very excited to continue learning about it!”
The large chalk board allows children the space to work as a team, continue to develop social skills, along with language while discussing design ideas, taking turns and sharing! Having both pieces on the playground allows teachers the opportunity to have definitive activities, along with open space for free play. This flexibility allows the staff to match the needs of the students with the perfect activity.
Funds for this project were supplied through a grant from The Falmouth Fund.
Upper Cape YMCA Project Update
Another Milestone Down!
Thank you and CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who helped us raise our Pre-Development dollars as we finished our “Founders Fund Drive”! These funds will allow us to finish our Fundraising Feasibility Studies, and facility designs, bringing us one step closer to opening our doors and welcoming you to a new Y! Specifically, thank you to the Upper Cape Y Volunteers who successfully surpassed their original goal to raise $120,000 to fund pre development expenses and professional fundraising counsel to guide our efforts to bring a Y to the Upper Cape.
This dedicated group began their work as the pandemic settled upon us back in March of 2020…after a short hiatus they regrouped and refocused their efforts raising a total of $250,540! Many thanks to the numerous volunteers who made this possible and a well-deserved CONGRATULATIONS to all involved, especially their leadership team of: Steve Clay, Joanne Treistman, Jim Preisig, Josef Kellndorfer.
For a new Y to be successful… it cannot be pushed into a community… it must be pulled into the community!
Interested in joining this great team of volunteers? Reach out today to volunteer!
Task Force Spotlight-
Meet Jim and Anne Preisig
The Y is here to serve the community, and that’s exactly who’s leading the charge to build a new YMCA branch on the Upper Cape. They live here, work here, and are helping to shape the future here. Let’s meet the members of the task force that’s working to build a new Upper Cape Y! _
For Falmouth residents Jim & Anne Preisig there aren’t many parts of their life they can’t connect back to a Y. Growing up in communities without access to a pool, they knew they wanted to make sure aquatics were a central part of their family. Years of swim lessons and swim meets later their family is ready to “dive in” to a new Y!
Anne Preisig is the Owner / Founder of Anne Preisig Personal Training and Jim is the Founder of JPAnalyitics. Together this North Falmouth couple is working to unite Falmouth’s aquatics community with the Y.
Here’s what they had to say about their experience with the Y.
What’s your experience with the Y? What’s your “Y Story”?
Jim: I grew up in rural Northern California and first started going to Y’s when I met Anne. We’d go to her hometown and go to the Y with her Dad. When I’d travel for work, I’d visit Y’s to exercise or swim. Anne really introduced me to the Y once we were married. It was her dad’s experience.
Anne: Growing up my father would rely on the Y for his source of exercise, weight loss, and basketball. It was his source of physical life, AND social life. Through him we would all go together. My brother also serves on the Board of Directors for that Y, so it’s a big family thing.
Why do you volunteer with the Y?
Jim: I grew up in communities that had nothing or inadequate pools. After I moved away my parents led a 20 year effort to bring a public pool to their community in Northern California. My Mother was able to spend her last year in that pool doing aquatic fitness. It was a great thing for her. With their example and what competitive swimming has done for our kids, we know the effort is worth it.
Anne: Because we want this for our community; we need this for our community. Such a need for this the things the Y can do, not just aquatics.
Why do you want a Y on the Upper Cape?
There are so many examples of how we’ve seen the Y positively impact our family, but the way competitive swimming has had such a huge impact on our kids might be the strongest. We know that Y’s can be life changing. When we got the chance to help bring one here, we know the difference it can make to the community. Our kids are part of the Cape Cod Swim Club. When covid was roaring, there was nothing for them to do. The Y opened and the Swim Club was able to resume. It kept our kids sane and gave them some sort of sense that the was still something normal going on. Giving kids the ability and vision to dream of something, and then helping and teaching them to work towards it.
The YMCA can serve the broad spectrum of needs you find in a family, and we think that’s really important. To have a facility where kids can be in kid’s classes and seniors can be doing senior things in ONE facility, is something that Falmouth doesn’t have right now; The Y can be a gathering place.
This started with Falmouth aquatics and Falmouth Wants a Y, almost 10 years ago and it has now snowballed. We’ve been able to bring youth programs, child care, after school. etc. We want all of these things for the people in this community Falmouth is a big town with lots of smaller communities, and to have something that is truly for the community as a whole, that’d be great…..
What’s your Favorite Quote? Why?
“Blessed are those who dream dreams, and are willing to pay the price to make them come true” We think that it really reflects the effort this community has put in so far on this project. You can think about it like, yeah, this has taken a lot of work, but we have a vision and a dream for what we want to see in our community. And look at all of the progress that we’ve made so far!
Interested in volunteering to help with this effort? Reach out today to volunteer!
What’s Next?
There are a lot of stops on our journey to build a new Y. Here’s what the next part of our journey looks like.
Looking to get involved? The next step in our journey is creating an Advisory Council. This group helps oversee and determine which services and programs are offered to the Upper Cape, identify and serve as subject matter experts, and make recommendations to the YMCA Cape Cod’s corporate Board of Directors.
If you’re interested in joining this group, or want to learn more, reach out to Janice Kinder
HERE
