YMCA of Greater Salt Lake

This Friday, October 24th, the YMCA will be celebrating its arrival into Ogden. We are hosting a special afterschool program at Madison Elementary with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 4pm and a YMCA festival from 5:oopm to 7:00pm. All are welcome free of charge. Please join us to celebrate the YMCA coming to Ogden!

Sorry for the big gap in time. We have been extremely busy with our most successful camp season on record and beginning a half million dollar renovation of Camp Roger (pictures to come soon), opening the YMCA in Ogden with our successful merger creating the YMCA CARES afterschool programs serving over 1000 children a day in Ogden and Weber and building a partnership with Granite School District to open the YMCA's first Youth Community Center in Taylorsville. Please keep in touch and we greatly appreciate your support.

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We hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. For us, we get a couple days off from an extremely busy and rewarding summer.
Camp Roger is warming up with the BEST summer in 10 years. We have more than doubled the number kids attending camp in two years with the best programing and specialty camps you can find. We actually have sold out of camps which we didn't think would happen for a few more years. We do have some openings, so call us if you want your child to experience an incredible week of outdoor adventure and experiences and friendships they will never forget.
Also, the YMCA is now in Ogden after officially merging and partnering with the CARES program. So keep an eye out for us. The YMCA is busy growing, improving our programs and are working hard to meet our vision:

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Why the big gap since our last blog? There has been A LOT going on. We finished up a fantastic Sports Night with our highest attendance ever (470+). The community continues to support our mission of serving Utah's youth.

In addition, Camp Roger continues to grow with its highest attendance in 10 years with enrollment continuing to grow. There is still room! Don't miss out on one of Utah's best summer adventures for youth! Click here to learn more about the Camp Roger experience.

What else? We have been busy making the final arrangement to finalize the merger of the Ogden After School program (CARES). Its official - on July 1st, the YMCA will now be in Ogden serving over 1000 kids at 13 schools. Marsha Prantil, the CARES director will be joining the YMCA's team and helping us lead our growth into providing the best quality afterschool experience.

Finally, we are in the final stages of forming a partnership with Granite School District that we believe will bring immense value to our communities. The YMCA plans to work with Granite Schools to build YMCA community centers at the schools to provide before & after school programs, holiday & summer camps and many other youth and family programs.

Keep an eye on us! The YMCA will be there for all of Utah before you know it.

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This week is the YMCA's 10th annual fund raising event - Sports Night. This looks to be our biggest event yet with over 500 guests anticipated to honor Utah's best in sports and community service. The event is this Thursday, April 17th from 5-9pm with a silent and live auctions with dinner and program honorees. Tickets to this special event are still available. You can call us at 801-466-6299 to RSVP and find out more information. We look forward to hosting this great event and thank everyone who is supporting the YMCA.

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We have a lot of exciting events coming up for the month of April. The first thing we are all looking forward to is our Healthy Kids Day event being held on April 12th 10am to 2pm at Valley Park (near the Taylorsville Recreation Center). We are teaming up with the University of Utah students and inviting the community (and especially YMCA kids and their families) to join in a festival of fun activities, healthy snacks, games, and lots of information. It is a free event for all participants with cool prizes being given away and should be a ton of fun.

Studies show that the average child gets less than 15 minutes of vigorous activity a day and that the average child spends 20% of their time watching TV. Our goal of our Healthy Kids Day is to change these numbers. We want to show kids how to “put play into their day”.

The Programming and Leadership class at the U of U are coordinating the event and have planned some wonderful activities such as a soccer shoot out, a Frisbee toss, a tire run and a healthy food challenge. These activities will teach the kids how to be active and healthy while still having fun.

Our next event we are all very excited for is our annual Sports Night on April 17. This year our honorees include the Jazz Bear, The Late Bill Daniels and Kyle Whittingham, Elaine Elliot, Eric Heiden, and Chris Waddell. Sports Night is a dinner and silent auction which is held in order to raise money for YMCA programs including after school and Camp Roger. Get more information here.

As you can see , April is looking very busy but very exciting. We look forward to seeing you all at Healthy Kids Day.

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The YMCA would like to express a very special and heart felt thank you to James L. Sorenson. His generosity has allowed many people and organizations to better serve their mission. For the YMCA, James L. Sorenson's $1,000,000 dollar for dollar challenge grant has helped the YMCA grow and better serve Utah's families and youth. We are very grateful for Mr. Sorenson's generosity and support and let his family know his memory will always be in our hearts for what he has done for our YMCA and Utah's youth and families.

THANK YOU!

The Salt Lake Tribune printed and article about Jame L. Sorenson's generosity and how he plans to keep giving after his passing. Click here to see the article.

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We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season. The YMCA of Greater Salt Lake had a wonderful year with improvements in all our programs; Camp Roger and our Before and After School Programs. Enrollment drastically increased and we are moving towards our goal of expanding the youth, families and communities we serve.

We would like to express a HUGE thank you to all of you who have supported the YMCA with your time and money. Without your help, we would not be able to accomplish everything we have. You support is providing a bright future for the YMCA and all of those youth and families we serve. THANK YOU!!

Camp Roger had the best year in over 5 years! We also began our renovation project remodeling the directors cabins and both bathhouses. 2008 we have big projects planned remodeling our Lodge, kitchen and ALL our sleeping cabins. In addition, we have new and expanded programing for our Camp Roger summer camps. You can register online NOW. Click hear!

Before and After School Programs ("ASP") had a great year opening a new school and increasing our enrollment. However, 2008 looks to be a HUGE year for ASP. We are looking to expand our service area, completely restructure our ASP operations and add online registration. Stay tuned for what will happen to our ASP. Our goal is to offer the best programing and opportunty for Utah's youth, families and communities.

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