Owasso Family YMCA Hosts Adventure Guides
FAMILY FUN: The Owasso Family YMCA recently implemented a new Adventure Guides program, which emphasizes the bond between participating parents and their children.
For young children, life is a wondrous journey with the parent as a guide. That’s the premise of Owasso Family YMCA Adventure Guides, an exciting new parent-child experience that recently began at the Owasso Family YMCA.
This life-changing program is an enhanced and updated version of YMCA’s earlier, time-honored Indian Guides and Indian Princesses parent-child programs. It celebrates family, nature, community and plain old-fashioned fun, incorporating, as always, the Y’s four character values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility.
“Teaching values, strengthening parent-child relationships, feeling support from other families and having fun: We’re excited to be able to offer all of that to our community,” exclaims Owasso YMCA Membership Director, Pam Gennardo. “We’re ready to go with YMCA Adventure Guides, and it’s a parent-child program that makes all of these things happen!”
Like the symbolic compass of its new logo, YMCA Adventure Guides offers new directions to rituals, routines and rites of passage, group meetings and activities, community outings and overnight camping. The program is structured so that one parent spends time with his or her 4 to 9-year-old child, building a relationship that is sure to make them friends forever. In fact, “friends forever” is the program motto.
“Our YMCA is committed to building assets in young children and to supporting our families in the role they play as asset builders,” adds Gennardo “We’re excited to be able to introduce this new direction in parent-child programs and we’re confident that it will have a broad appeal, allowing us to reach out and serve more families than ever before.” Although staff members provide support, this program relies heavily on the work of parent volunteers to make this one of the YMCA’s strongest leadership and volunteer-development programs.
YMCAs are collectively the largest community-service organization and largest providers of child care in the United States and have been offering parent-child programs since 1926. Ys across the country are at the heart of community life, serving 18.3 million men, women and children with programs designed to foster the core values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility. Y s are for people of all faiths, races, ages and incomes.
For more information on YMCA Adventure Guides call the Owasso Family YMCA (918) 272-96-22, or email pgennardo@ymcatulsa.org.
Updated 02-17-2010
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