The meeting was lightly attended with only 18 members present along with AG Henkes and speaker Wendy Bethelo-Cortez. President Steve called the meeting to order and reviewed the announcements for the Volcano Run, July 27th, and asked Sharon Sheele to talk about the Junior Achievement Banquet on August 22nd. Art Taniguchi reported that there would be a peace service and activities the Hilo Hongwanji on August 4th at 9 am. Steve Useda, a Rotarian from Alaska, will be the featured speaker. After the service, there will activities to promote peace at Sanga Hall. 

Wendy Bothelo-Cortez, CEO of  the Hilo YMCA got right to business explaining the Y's major program. To summarize, Wendy provided information on the gym, youth camps, the Family Visitation Program and two essential income producing activites, TSA Precheck and Field Check.

 

The gym program is utilizied by 40% of its 5,000 members and opens at 4 am with an average of 40 people waiting to get in. It is drawing all age groups and has grown, in part, as a result of having shower facilities and a large number of gym classes each week. Get up, get sweaty, shower and go to work! A little like Hilo Bay Rotary Club but healthier.

 

The YMCA runs camps for youngsters throughout the year. If school is not in session, there is a camp providing a number of activities for children. What was really interesting was that the YMCA promotes youth leadership through Junior Leaders who do everything from cleaning to running classes. One of the challenges of the camp program is the percentage of DOH mandated children. They present a lot of challenges to the staff but also opportunities. Wendy related the story of a young female who got caught vapping. The YMCA turned this incident into a positive by securing a two year grant to dissuade the use of vaps.

 

The YMCA also runs the Family Visitation Center seven days a week to reunite parents and children who have suffered abuse. Wendy found that when utilizing kapuna instead of young workers, the program produced better results and lowers recidivism rates.

 

Finally, she mentioned the TSA and Field Check programs. Field Check is finger priint driven background check for people working in fields requiring background checks. My assumption is that the YMCA receives a fee or commission from TSA and Field Check eventhough it was not mentioned in her presentation.