Welcome to my blog! I’m John Hoey, and I have had the privilege and responsibility of running the Y of Central Maryland for the past 3 and a half years. Prior to our board hiring me for this role, I spent my entire professional career in the for-profit, public-company business world. Although I never would have previously imagined that I would be doing what I now do for a living, I find that being the head of the Y of Central Maryland is one of the best and most compelling platforms one can have to work on two inextricably linked things: helping children and youth get ready for success in school and life; and improving the health, well-being and connectedness of a community. All of my professional and personal experience has led me to this place and time with a burning desire to work on behalf of this community on those things.Say what? Isn’t the Y just a fitness club, a place to sweat, swim and burn some calories? Well, actually, while burning calories and being active are core to our mission (a charitable organization dedicated to developing the full potential of every individual through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all), by no means are we a fitness club. We are, at our heart, a 160+ year old force that seeks to find ways to break down the ever-growing walls that divide us and bring the full range of the community together around activities that enrich, engage, challenge and build us in spirit, mind and body.
One of the most disturbing and destructive changes in our culture over the past fifty or so years has been the increasing number of attitudes and attributes that have come to separate people – by income, race, preferences, political views, education, you name it. We live in a time of so-called virtual communities, thinking that we are bringing people together. And yet, most of those communities are in fact a very narrow sub-strata of our society. We have actually balkanized the concept of community, and have turned it on its head. By it’s very definition, a community should and must be diverse. Yet, we are all constantly asked to declare which side of a dividing line we are on:
- Liberal or conservative
- Red state or blue state
- Black or white
- Nerd or jock
- College graduate or high school graduate
- Wealthy or poor
- Gay or straight
- Believer or atheist
- Democrat or Republican
…and the list goes on. Of course, differences are inevitable, and in fact, provide the kind of rich texture that our country has been built upon. So, why don’t we spend more time around those who are different than us? Why do we all too often avoid people who might think, act or feel differently than we do? We shop, work, live, recreate, and worship in very narrow worlds. Increasingly, we spend time on-line with “communities” that only further separate us from people who aren’t exactly like us.
So, what does this have to do with the Y? The answer: Everything!! In my blog, I will explore how the Y can be and is a “Third Place” in our community; a place in which those things that divide us melt away, and we can re-connect with neighbors and others in the community who we might ordinarily ignore.
Have I thoroughly confused you now? Didn’t you think the Y was about working out and I was really a business guy trying to make us bigger and more successful? If so, I welcome you to keep reading my blog in the coming weeks and months, and I will take you on a journey to the heart of the Y and what really motivates me about what I do.
Yours in Community,
John
Posted by John K. Hoey, President & CEO, Y of Central Maryland
