REGION – Meeting Waters YMCA’s executive director Susan Fortier was at the Vermont State House on Tuesday, Feb. 17, for the reading of a proclamation honoring the YMCA movement’s 175th anniversary.
Submitted by Rep. Barbara Rachelson, of Burlington, the proclamation noted that the first YMCA in America was founded in Boston on Dec. 29, 1851, and listed several contributions of the YMCA movement to American culture in the subsequent years, including offering the first English as a second language classes, inventing basketball, and serving as the birthplace of Father’s Day.
The proclamation also celebrated the founding of the first YMCA in Vermont, in Burlington, in 1866, followed by the origination of the Bellows Falls YMCA, now known as Meeting Waters YMCA, in 1895. It notes that, today, Greater Burlington YMCA and Meeting Waters YMCA combine to serve more than 15,000 people.
For more information about Meeting Waters YMCA’s rich history and current programs, visit www.meetingwatersymca.org, or contact their office at 802-463-4769 or info@meetingwatersymca.org.