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Weatherford Chapter

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Weatherford Chapter YMCA Alumni

Spring Fling 2025

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

April 28-30, 2025

Join us for a walk-through history at Colonial Williamsburg this spring! Come and roam Duke of Gloucester Street and surrounding areas, discovering craftsmanship as you encounter costumed interpreters plying their trades using 18^th century tools and techniques. There will be gardens, shops, and taverns to explore, as well as the Governor’s Palace, the Capital Building, the Abby Aldrick Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

Your registration fee of $136.00 per person will include a one day ticket to all of the areas mentioned plus a three hour walking guided tour of Colonial Williamsburg with an interpreter on Tuesday morning from 9am to noon. During the afternoon you will have an opportunity to continue exploring Colonial Williamsburg at your leisure with lunch on your own.

The registration fee also includes a private dinner on Monday evening at the hotel and a second private dinner on Tuesday evening at Rocco’s Smokehouse Grill after our day at Williamsburg.

To Register for the Spring Fling 2025 gathering, download the registration form by clicking on the "Registration form for Spring Fling Link" below. Then fill it out and mail it to Sybil and Pat Newman using the address on the form.

We will be staying at the Embassy Suites Hotel Williamsburg, 3006 Mooretown Road, Williamsburg, VA. Our group rate will be $139 plus tax per night which includes a complimentary cooked to order breakfast, complimentary evening cocktail reception, complimentary Wi-Fi and complimentary parking.

You can make reservations by calling hotel directly at 757 229-6800 and requesting the YMCA room block.

Or Book on line by clicking HERE! for Hilton

Registration form for Spring Fling Link Click HERE

Reservations must be made by March 30, 2025 for the group rate to be honored.

Come join us at Colonial Williamsburg

we have lots of stories to share on our guided tour!

Volunteer Work Session for recovery efforts at YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly

March 31 thru April 3 are reserved for Weatherford Chapter members to provide volunteer support for the Blue Ridge recovery efforts. Work sessions will begin the afternoon of March 31 and conclude the afternoon of April 3. Participants will be staying on Campus in the new 16 bedroom Lotz Lodge. Specific work assignments details are being developed. Please consider attending to help Blue Ridge get ready to open the Campus for summer conferences! If you would like to place your name on the list to receive additional information please email Charles Cleveland at charles73148@gmail.com.

Potential Fall Festival 2025 Dates!!!!!

October 27 thru 29 We will potentially gather at YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina to celebrate our annual FALL FESTIVAL! It will be three days of fun, fellowship and sharing you don’t want to miss! Details will be announced in the end of the summer.

The F. William Stahl Award - YMCA Alumni's most prestigious honor.

A Big Weatherford Chapter Hooray for Nancy Reece, the 2025 recipient of

YMCA Alumni’s most prestigious honor…the F. William Stahl Award!

For over twenty years, Nancy wrote thoughtful articles for Perspective, the Association of Professional Directors (APD) journal, and other YMCA publications. A frequent theme of these articles was managing YMCAs with integrity. She often drew compelling lessons from her own YMCA experience.

Nancy’s Perspective writings tackled knotty ethical issues, the place of Christianity in the Y’s mission, staff diversity, and the challenge of knowing and doing the right thing. But she also offered practical career advice and management strategies.

Nancy co-edited Strengthening the Organizational Heart, a book based on the writings of YMCA legend John R. Mott, in 2006. She was the first woman elected National Board Chair of APD and is the second woman to receive the Stahl Award.

Nancy Joins An All Star Group Of Recipients Including…

1975 Ron Kinnamon * 1978 Bob Rule * 1979 Paul Lambert * 1982 Augie Becker * 1985 Max Closers * 1989 Bob Knight * 1991 Lee Wilson * 1993 Bob Harlan * 1994 Alan Pickering * 1997 Gene Turner Jr. * 1998 John O’Melia * 1999 John Fisher * 2000 Parker Lansdale * 2001 Andy Brethaur * 2002 Hank Bagelmann Jr. 2003 Gerry Morse 2004 Dick Ortmeyer * 2005 Frank Kiehne * 2006 Peter Gabel * 2007 Bill Cameron 2008 Don Zerwer 2009 Tom Hargrave Jr. * 2011 Norris Lineweaver 2014 Stew Brown * / Alice Sawyer 2017 Phil Wortman 2019 Len Wilson 2022 Jim Stooke * 2025 Nancy Reece

Membership Chair Molly McGregor

February 28th is the requested deadline for renewing your YMCA Alumni Membership....so that you can continue to enjoy all of the benefits and privileges to include updates about work days at Blue Ridge, the National and the International Service Project, Spring Fling Info, Returning to Blue Ridge in the Fall, news of your favorite colleagues, birthday cards, Travel Club Info and more. To renew go to www.ymcaalumni.org. Click up on the right hand corner the three little lines and hit RENEW. Currently, we are waiting for 19 members to renew for 2025. If you change your phone, email, address, spouse, anything... please send your changes to : Molly McGregor at mcgregors1575@gmail.com

JANUARY 2025 EAF UPDATE

Total Y Alumni Giving '24 $43,203

Weatherford Chapter Giving ‘24 $8,625

Thank you so much for your support with the unexpected and disastrous hurricane Helene that affected the Southeast last year, from the devastation at our YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly, to the recent devastating fires in Southern California! Your support of our Y colleagues affected by these natural disasters has never been more important. We want to encourage all our Y Alumni to continue their support of our Y EAF to enable us to be there to assist when one of "our own" is facing an unplanned emergency. If you would still like to make a gift, and/or learn more about EAF, please visit: https://www.ymcaeaf.org

International Service Core (ISC) Representative Laura Kamperman Note

ISC is planning for another team of volunteers to visit the youth Migrant Center in Tijuana Mexico. If you are interested in this YMCA service project or future ISC trips abroad, please submit your application now through the YMCA Alumni website. Explore upcoming opportunities on the website under "Serve".

Travel Club Update from Jean and Bert Bock

We have now completed three Y Alumni Travel Club trips since we began taking advantage of the opportunities available. Two were motor coach trips with one in Colorado in 2022 and the other in Scotland in 2024. In 2023, we participated in a river cruise in Europe. Currently, the travel club is offering three fantastic ocean cruises, two of which we will be among the passengers.

There is still time to register for the Norway cruise, Land of the Midnight Sun & Summer Solstice, which is June 17-July 3, 2025. The Emerald Princess departs from Southampton, UK for Norway and its beautiful fjords and will return to Southampton.

The next cruise is October 20-November 3, 2025, on the Viking Vesta from Venice, Italy to Istanbul, Turkey. This cruise, Ancient Adriatic Treasures, includes the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. It’s an excellent time of year to be on a cruise.

The third cruise is June 5-12, 2026. Alaska: The Last Frontier is aboard the Celebrity Edge. This will be the third Alaska cruise offered by the Travel Club in the last several years. It departs from Vancouver and returns to Seattle. As always, you’re encouraged to bring friends and family. We will be hosting this trip. That means we will send out emails in advance to encourage you to sign up and help you prepare for the trip. We hope you will join us for this adventure.

For more information about these three, as well as other opportunities, please check out the Travel Club scheduled cruises at this link: https://ymcaalumnitravelclub.org

Keep your eyes open in The Connection and Going Places for some really exciting news over the next few months!

Your travel club representatives,

Jean and Bert Bock

Jan. 26-Feb. 2, 2025:

YMCA Alumni Reunion-at Sea Cruise on

Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas

Was a big success! 12 members of the Weatherford Chapter Attended and we all got new t-shirts!