The Greenville YMCA proudly presents itself as a Christian organization. It’s a place that talks about faith, community, service, and putting people first. Those are values that should mean something. In fact, if an organization chooses to identify itself as Christian, I believe its leadership should be held to an even higher standard than everyone else, not a lower one. The people leading that organization should be examples of honesty, integrity, humility, compassion, and accountability, especially when their decisions affect children and families. The Greenville YMCA is also a non-profit organization or at least claims to be.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t our experience.
This isn’t an article I ever wanted to write. Like many families, I trusted the Greenville YMCA. The gymnastics families invested years into this competitive gymnastics program. We volunteered, fundraised, donated time, celebrated victories, comforted our children through disappointments, and believed we were helping build something that would continue for years to come.
Looking back now, I can’t help but wonder if the program was ever truly given a chance to succeed.
For the last couple of years, families watched the gymnastics facility slowly fall apart. There weren’t one or two roof leaks, there were six. Those leaks damaged equipment our athletes used every single day. During the summer, the gym became unbearably hot because there wasn’t adequate cooling. During the winter, the heat was insufficient, leaving our children practicing in uncomfortable conditions. Despite all of that, our coaches continued showing up. Our athletes continued showing up. Parents continued showing up because we believed in the program, even when it felt like the YMCA no longer did.
There were other decisions that were just as confusing. Coaches were instructed not to use social media to promote the gymnastics program through the YMCA. As parents, we couldn’t understand how a program was supposed to grow if the very people leading it weren’t allowed to advertise it. Recruiting new athletes is the way to keep a program going.
Then everything changed.
On Monday, May 11, two parents were informed that the competitive gymnastics program was being eliminated. They were instructed not to tell anyone, not the athletes, not the other parents, and not even the coaches. Imagine carrying news like that while being told to stay silent.
Two days later, on Wednesday, May 13, the coaches were finally informed. These were the people who had devoted years to these athletes, yet they were given less than twenty-four hours to process the news.
On Thursday, May 14, parents were called to a meeting with Greenville YMCA CEO Sam Casalano and Ed Thomas (unknown affiliation because he isn’t on the webpage). By the time we sat down, it quickly became obvious that the meeting wasn’t about discussing options or asking for input. The decision had already been made. But the families in that room weren’t ready to give up.
One after another, parents began offering solutions. We asked what it would take financially to keep the program alive. We offered to pay higher tuition. We offered to organize fundraisers. We offered to find sponsors. We even offered to cover the financial shortfall ourselves if money was truly the problem. We weren’t asking the YMCA to rescue the program. We were offering to rescue it ourselves.
All we asked for was a number and we never got one.
No one would tell us what it would actually cost to save the program. That moment has stayed with many of us ever since. If finances were truly the reason for shutting down the program, why refuse to tell the families who were standing there willing to raise the money? It left many of us believing that the decision had been made long before we ever walked into that room and that nothing we offered was ever going to matter.
For years, gymnastics families had raised money through fundraisers, community support, and countless volunteer hours. Those weren’t YMCA dollars. Those were dollars raised by parents who believed they were investing in their children’s future, and they were put in the “parent account”. Those funds helped purchase the gymnastics equipment the program used.
When the program was closed, families wanted to use some of those parent-raised funds to give our girls one final banquet, a chance to celebrate everything they had accomplished together before going their separate ways. We were told yes, but with stipulations. We were told we were only allowed to spend a certain amount, despite the fact that those funds had been raised by gymnastics families. We were given a banquet spending amount because we were not allowed to use the funds on a “a lavish banquet”.
At the same time, the equipment that those same families helped purchase (from the parent account) remained with the YMCA. If that equipment is sold, the YMCA receives the proceeds, while the families who helped pay for it receive nothing in return.
As if that wasn’t difficult enough, another issue surfaced after the program had already ended. The competitive gymnastics program’s final day was at the end of June. There would be no program in July or August. Yet families were still facing membership charges unless they canceled according to YMCA policy. Coaches initially removed those charges from parent accounts because there was no longer a gymnastics program to participate in. According to what we were told, those charges were ordered to be put back. Parents found themselves questioning why they would be expected to continue paying after the YMCA had already decided there would be no program left to attend. This was resolved because a lot of the parents called Ed directly and complained. He was rude on the phone and actually chuckled at one of the parents concerned questions, then when confronted face to face switched his words and said that no parents would be charged for July and August.
Throughout all of this, one question kept coming up: where was the Board of Directors? Families were told decisions were being made by the Board, yet many of us had no idea who the board members were or how to contact them. There was no transparency. There was no opportunity to speak with the people making decisions that would forever change the lives of our children and believe me, we asked for them to come, to talk, but nothing only silence.
This article isn’t about being angry that a program closed. Programs sometimes close. It’s about whether leadership lived up to the values it claims to represent. It’s about whether families were treated with honesty, transparency, and respect. It’s about children who lost a program they loved, coaches who dedicated years of their lives only to receive a day’s notice, and parents who stood ready to do whatever it took to save something that meant the world to their kids. And to do all of that to be told “no, the decision is final”. So why did they close it if it really wasn’t about the money?
Why was it even about the money to begin with? It is a non-profit organization.
I believe Darke County deserves to know that story.
Concerned Gymnastics Parents
