In this brief speech, Dr. Gladish provides a compelling overview of the YMCA, it’s origins, accomplishments in the United States of America, and how the Christian faith is intregal to it all.
Enjoy this friendly, informative, personal accounting of the Y in 2001; see how the C is described and embodied in the YMCA history, institution, and future.
Here is the concluding paragraphs to the speech:
Herein may lie the secret ofthe association’s success and the power of its impact on rising generations of Americans, their families and their communities.
The enterprise, openness, and values of the YMCA were seeded long ago in the American Christlan conscience which gave birth to our nation’s revolution in civic association, charitable action, and moral commitment.
If the “spirit of the Lord” was upon the founding generation of the YMCA, we might well ask where it is to be found today.
And today, of course, is a different day, both for America and for the YMCA.
In a complex and increasingly diverse America, the YMCA is still called to change lives.
In this work we are compelled by faith and history, as well as experience and conviction, to affirm what we know to be true – we are called at our best to do the work we were created to complete.
Like the prophet Isaiah in the Hebrew scriptures, and Jesus of Nazareth in the Christian gospels, we will find the right “spirit” in our own work when we:
“Preach good news to the poor; Proclaim release to the captives; Seek recovery of sight to the blind; and Set at liberty those who are oppressed.”
As students of these sacred texts understand, of course, we are all in some way poor, captive, blind, and oppressed.
The reversal of these conditions and the realization of our full and blessed potential as individuals depend on the unified development of our spiritual, intellectual, and physical personalities.
This has been and must remain the work ofthe YMCA as it touches thelives of men and women, boys and girls, in the new century which lies ahead.
Gladish, p18-19
The YMCA of the USA, the national office responsible for supporting the nation’s 2,500-plus YMCAs, celebrated its 150th anniversary year in 2001. YMCAs serve over 18 million Americans, more than half of them children, and are collectively the nation’s largest charity and community-based service organization.
Gladish accepted the position of Executive Director following six years as executive director of the Indianapolis Foundation and three years as president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of the Indiana Humanities Council and director of the Indiana Donors Alliance. A YMCA member from childhood in his hometown of Northbrook, IL, he volunteered and later held his first professional position as assistant director of youth and community programs at the North Suburban YMCA. He has served on the boards of local YMCAs in Virginia and Indiana and on the national board from 1977 to 1983.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Hanover College and master’s and doctorate degrees in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. He has taught at the college level at the University of Virginia, Butler University and Indiana University. Active in civic and professional organizations, he serves as a trustee of Hanover and is a member of the boards of American Humanics, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the National Assembly of non-profit agencies.
