I've been going to the YMCA since it was first built in Marysville when I was about 14. I started out going with a friend, and then eventually got my own membership. We'd go lift weights, swim and play racquetball...but what I really loved was the racquetball games.

Eventually I let my YMCA membership lapse, and went off to college. Once I was done with the college one of the biggest things I wanted to do was go play racquetball again. Through the Y I found a group to play with, but I always saw other groups of players and wondered why everyone kept to their own group. After a while, my buddy Ryan and I started a racquetball league at the Everett YMCA, where there are more courts, and started building a racquetball community there.

The YMCA in Everett has been a great place for me to get to know people in my community, to play some racquetball, and they have been exceptionally supportive of my efforts to grow the racquetball community using their facility. Through our racquetball league, we see people who would never have met outside of this community become friends and help each other to lose weight. We've worked to expand the racquetball community to include kids, so they can be introduced to this great sport at a young age. Because the YMCA is so supportive of families, there are opportunities for racquetball players to get the whole family involved in the sport, where rules preventing kids on the courts in other facilities prevent such a family atmosphere.

Won't you help me support the YMCA?