Jon Labbe, who visits the Y an average of 5 days a week, recalls his time growing up just a block away from the Firestone Park YMCA, where he attended the Y’s after-school program. “One day was tumbling and another day was dodge ball, and another day was relay races. And they had all these activities, including archery, when we got older.”
He also remembers enjoying the Saturday afternoon movies like Frankenstein, The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello, shown in the gym before getting picked up by a bus and heading to swim lessons at Lincoln School. Field trips to Borden’s Dairy and the Wonder Bread Factory were also part of the Y’s programming for kids. “I remember we got a little loaf of bread and one Twinkie,” he said with a smile.
Jon also went to camp. “Every summer I went to Camp Y-Noah. And, you know, the swimming and boating and, and just all the stuff you do when you go camping. It's some of the fondest memories of my childhood,” he said.
Today, Jon is an Active Older Adult reflecting on how the Y was part of his life then and now.
“There's so much symmetry in my life. You know, you hear people say when you're young, you learn to walk and you talk. As you get older, you stop walking, you stop talking. And this, the YMCA is going to be in the middle of this my whole life.”