Katie Transue
kat003@marietta.edu
People hustled and bustled into the YMCA on a busy Monday morning. I entered and waited to meet with Suzy Zumwalde, the executive director at the Y. I watched as parents rushed to drop their kids off at the pre-school before work. Others entered and headed for their Zumba class or left after spending the morning working out in the fitness facilities. Just then, Suzy entered.
“I’m so sorry for being late,” she said. “We had a pipe for the pool burst in the basement this morning, and then I went to do something for the local radio station WMOA.”
Every morning Suzy does her rounds when she enters the Y. She checks in on just about everyone from the little tikes in the preschool to the lifeguards in the pool to the Zumba class instructors. She congratulates one staff member on her wedding and discusses ways to make the pool better with another.
“Suzy is really easy-going and open-minded to new ideas to improve the Y and make it better for our members,” said Stephanie Angelo, fitness coordinator at the Marietta YMCA.
Even as I walked around to see the classes going on and the fitness center, everyone said hello to Suzy. The members stopped to chat to one another as they passed in and out of the building. Everyone was so friendly even through all the hustle and bustle of the morning rush. Everyone made time to talk to their fellow coworkers.
I talked to a couple employees about what it’s like to work at the Y and they both said the same thing: the Y is like an extended family and it has a community-like atmosphere. Stephanie, who recently moved to Marietta from the Poconos mountains in Pennsylvania about six months ago, said that all YMCAs are that way. She said the Y strives to be family friendly and welcoming to newcomers.
When Suzy graduated from Marietta College with a degree in biology and psychology, she knew one thing was certain: her love for working with children.
“I knew that I really wanted to work with kids,” Zumwalde said. “I moved back to Cincinnati after graduation and started working part-time at the Y at home.”
She later moved to New Hampshire to work at a summer camp. There, a YMCA childcare position opened and Suzy jumped at the opportunity.
Since the YMCA is a national organization there’s a large network of resources and potential job opportunities. Suzy was able to find a place in south Texas looking to start a new Y in the area. Suzy moved to Texas where she took the executive director position and started a Y from the ground up.
While in Texas, Suzy had her daughter Samantha. Nine years ago she decided to move back to her home state of Ohio. She worked at the Y in Columbus for a couple of years and then when the executive director position opened at the Marietta Family YMCA, Suzy took the opportunity to come back to the quaint town where she had gone to college.
“Sammie loves watching the men and women’s basketball games and soccer games,” she said of her 12-year-old daughter. “She knows all the great places on campus and she walks around like she’s a student.”
Since then, Suzy has not only been involved with the Y but she also has taken on the position of Sigma Kappa Sorority’s corporation board president, the sorority she was a part of during her time at Marietta College. She also works closely with the school to provide training for nonprofits and works with the McDonough Leadership program on the Nonprofits LEAD board advisory panel.
Suzy says it is a great exchange between the program and the Y. Students can gain community service hours, internships, and also benefit from the opportunities the Y offers. The Y also benefits from the work that the students do for them.
The Y benefits the community in many ways. On Oct. 25, the YMCA will be hosting its Corporate Cup. The event is a competition between local companies and will involve a multitude of events including a 5K run, Tug-of-War, Hot Shot Soccer, an obstacle course and more. The event, aligned mainly with the Y’s purpose, is to promote a lifetime of awareness and commitment to physical activity and to create positive relationships with members of our community and fellow businesses.
As I left the YMCA, I started to feel the family atmosphere that all of the employees were talking about. People were chatting in the parking lot on their way in or out, and as I left the receptionist wished me a good day.
