WEATHERING
THE STORM

Our volunteers, donors, community partners and staff answered the call in 2020, helping our organization endure one of the most challenging seasons in its history. Because of their tireless efforts and their deep commitment to our mission, we were able to not only restore our existing programs and services, but also develop and build new ways of serving our community.
Liz Wilson
2020-2021 Association Board Chair

Dan Dummermuth
President & CEO

LETTER FROM LEADERSHIP

Dear Friends,

We suspect some of you may share our feeling that 2020 began in earnest, not on January 1, but on March 3—the day we woke up to the aftermath of a tornado that had devastated the communities we hold so dear.

We’ll never forget receiving the calls that our Y-CAP East Nashville campus—home to our youth development staff offices, and a safe haven for kids and teens for nearly 35 years—was utterly destroyed. Not since the 2010 floods, it seems, had Middle Tennessee experienced such widespread damage and corporate grief. And so, as we began to take stock of 2020 for this Annual Report, it seemed only fitting to mark the year’s first winds of turmoil—and the rebuilding we will do—by taking our annual photograph amid the rubble on Russell Street.

As we threw our efforts into relocating staff, assessing the damage, and serving youth in our programs affected by the storms, we had not collectively contemplated the sheer magnitude of the next storm brewing on the horizon. A mere two weeks after the tornado, on March 17, we voluntarily closed all of our family wellness centers as COVID-19 cases climbed alarmingly across the state.

The pandemic shook the very foundations of our community and of our organization. Serving “outside our walls”—a phrase we had long used to describe our outreach efforts—took on a deeper meaning as we sought to keep caring for our members, program participants and neighbors from a safe distance once schools and our Y facilities were forced to close.

In the face of these difficult realities, our Y supporters were generous as ever, contributing an incredible $1.1 million to the YMCA Community Respond Fund, created to address our neighbors’ pressing needs following the tornado and throughout the pandemic.

With that support—and with the kind of innovation that comes under extreme pressure, when the stakes have never been higher—we reimagined the ways we serve our community.

Membership centers became emergency child care sites, youth programming and mentoring went online, and the strong community partnerships on which we have always relied helped us scale a food program that gave out hundreds of thousands of meals to kids and families at no cost to them.

Even amidst a historic forced closure of our facilities for several weeks, and a period of limited capacity and programming, we had the immense privilege of serving 139,385 individuals in 2020, more than 40% of whom were children.

We’ve long said that throughout its storied history, the Y has pivoted to meet the ever-evolving needs of the communities it serves. As I, Dan, approach retirement and survey my 35-year tenure with the Y, I realize how many times I have watched our organization adapt to deliver on our mission, but perhaps never more so than throughout the storms of 2020. And as I, Liz, think about my first year as board chair, I am humbled by the ways in which our staff, volunteers and donors helped us weather the storm.

Now, as the skies begin to clear, we are mindful of the rainbow that appeared after the flood, serving as God’s reminder of a promise to never again destroy. May this annual report be a similar beacon, an enduring testament to the many lives changed and challenges overcome, and a reminder that no matter the storms that await us, we can and will emerge even stronger on the other side.

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children cared for at no cost through grant funding from the Tennessee Department of Human Services

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free meals and snacks provided through partnering with Metro Nashville Public Schools and Second Harvest Food Bank
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youth nurtured and mentored through virtual and in-person programming

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in government grants and contracts secured

$ 0 +

raised from private donors to meet our neighbors’ urgent needs

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LIVES REACHED

ABOVE AND BEYOND

Our staff went above and beyond in 2020, helping our organization endure one of the most challenging seasons in its history. Because of their tireless efforts and their deep commitment to our mission, we were able to not only restore our existing programs and services, but also develop and build new ways of serving our community.

Tina Anderson

People Services
“Tina has been awesome as our Association’s COVID-19 coordinator/expert, tracking cases and communicating with multiple county health departments all while maintaining her regular HRC duties with the Northwest and Margaret Maddox Family YMCAs. She has done incredible work to make sure our staff stayed safe throughout a challenging 2020.”

Jim Ring

School Age Services, Y-CAP, Membership
“Jim did an incredible job jumping in to run child care services for families of essential workers in Robertson County, a county where we did not have an SAS presence before COVID-19 hit. He also restarted the center’s Y-CAP program to serve and support the county’s youth during the pandemic. Jim was willing to step up and serve when our community needed it most.”

Alan Edmondson

Property
"It takes a lot of coordination to close our facilities for several months during the pandemic and then reopen them in a safe manner, especially one month after the tornado impacted our Y-CAP facility. Our property team, led by Alan Edmondson, removed hundreds of pieces of fitness equipment from our YMCAs in order to provide safe distancing, coordinated the ordering and distributing of thousands of cleaning supplies and masks, and installed hundreds of plexiglass barriers. These long days and nights were essential in creating a safe environment for our staff, members, and volunteers."

Rachel Folk

Y-CAP
“Rachel is passionate about the health and welfare of our students and families. When schools closed, she knew that food would be an issue for many of our families. Rachel led the Y-CAP charge to listen to families, delivering food and practical items to help them survive in the early months of the pandemic. She also created a monthly newsletter with information and resources to keep families connected.”

Elizabeth Hughes

Membership, Wellness
“During our reopening, when we were understaffed, Elizabeth was willing to step in at the Maryland Farms YMCA. She taught classes, worked on the wellness floor, cleaned, and checked in members. Elizabeth also did a fantastic job restarting the YMCA’s Weight Loss Program and After Breast Cancer Program virtually during the pandemic.”

Kennitha Jackson

School Age Services
“Kennitha is one of our area coordinators in the North Davidson community. During the pandemic, her light shone so incredibly bright. She played a huge role in the development of the projects that were done with kids on site, which really set the tone and the culture. She also had the unique ability to translate those into systems in a way that worked for both kids and staff. Plus, Kennitha is an incredibly fun person, which was such a valuable quality as we navigated a lot of stress and uncertainty through the pandemic.”

Thomas Magee

School Age Services
“When the pandemic hit, we had a need for an Emergency Child Care in Robertson Co. and Thomas was one of the first staffers to jump in. He didn’t have prior experience with safety protocols, but he had that ‘it’ factor. Thomas was incredible with the kids, setting the tone and the culture. When a position opened up in Montgomery Co. related to the work he’d done over the summer, he devoted himself to learning the rules. Thomas has risen up as an incredible leader in our Montgomery Co. SAS Operations and though he’s only been with SAS for a short amount of time, he has made a huge impact.”

Jordan Waller
and Ariel Smith

School Age Services, Y-CAP, Membership
“When called to serve 100% virtually, our Y-Literacy team never missed a beat. They said, 'We can still help students learn to read!' Jordan and Ariel found online resources, trained themselves, and then brought students, families, and volunteers along. They created training videos in both Spanish and English to maximize volunteer training efficiently and managed to keep their service numbers the same virtually as they had in-person.”

Lauren Williams

School Age Services
“Lauren is the engine of School Age Services. In 2020, she helped hold everything together. Lauren helped implement the safety protocols and various systems that we had to put into place to be able to serve kids in our community safely. She really took that YMCA value of responsibility to heart. Lauren cares so deeply for our staff, and tried to find creative ways through the pandemic to show our appreciation. We would never have been able to serve at the capacity we did in 2020 without Lauren.”

Widji Kitchen Staff

Camp Widjiwagan
“When I think about how our staff came together in 2020, it all started with food. We had the opportunity to provide meals to kids who were no longer able to eat at school, an initiative led by our Kitchen Team: Trent, Christy, and Paula. From March to May, every member of our professional team was in the kitchen. We made 2,500 meals every day and then shipped them to grab-and-go locations across Nashville with Camp Widji vehicles. Trent and his team got the ball rolling on the activation of Widji as a distribution site for Second Harvest Food Bank, where we began taking three tons of food every two weeks and distributing to families who needed groceries. It was a cascade of incredible community service from our staff.”

Achievers Team

Y-CAP
“When schools were closed in spring 2020, our graduating seniors were left adrift. Our Achievers team led by Nichole, Josh and Karina jumped in to work with students one-on-one to help them cross the finish line to graduation and find their best next step. Thanks to this team, 66 seniors were admitted to college and claimed $1 million in scholarships.”

DONORS

VOLUNTEERS

LEADERSHIP

FINANCIALS