By reading through chapter seven I realized that the YMCA has come a long way. It started in the 1890's as the Young Men's Christian Association (which I never knew what YMCA stood for until I took this class). The original purpose of the YMCA was to attract young men to spiritual work and offered classes of physical culture. It was more geared towards boys that were from clerical classes and business men. By 1892 the YMCA had over 348 gyms and had over a quarter million members. For the late 1800's that is a lot of people being members of the YMCA.
The YMCA has grown so much over the last century. Along with have calestetics and gymnastics YMCA's have so much more to offer to their members. I will look at the local YMCA in my home town as an example. The YMCA in Findlay has a wide variety of activities to choose from. First off, there is a large weight room, with a track for people to run around with, 2 pools, 6 or so basketball courts, racquet's ball courts, and a large lounge room for kids for after school. The YMCA also offers endless classes for people such as spinning classes, yoga, and swimming lessons. As well as offering classes the Y offers a day care along with day camps in the summer for kids out of school. Also, with the evolution of the YMCA there are a lot more female members than back in the last 1800's-1900's. The YMCA has grown from its quarter million members to over 45 million members worldwide. This number is outstanding! I myself was a member at our local YMCA before college and used all of it services to it's fullest. Hey there is even a song written about the YMCA that we all know, that's how popular it is!
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Actually the YMCA movement began around the mid-1800s in England, before coming to the U.S. shortly thereafter. The movement in the U.S. was centered largely around Springfield College, which was the YMCA Training School. I agree with you that the membership was pretty astounding for that time in our history. There were also YWCAs for women, and comparable organizations for African Americans, as Captain wrote about in her article.
ReplyDeleteLike you, the YMCA played an important role in my family's early sporting activities, as my community had a "Y" pool and many of the facilities that you mentioned as well. As for the song, I doubt it would have been what Luther Gulick might have envisioned, but it is definitely entertaining when played at baseball games!