YMCA of the North history

In the winter of 1863-64, the YMCA of one Mississippi brigade organized a one-day-a-week fast among its members and sent the saved rations to the poor in Richmond.

In 1866, the influential New York YMCA adopted a fourfold purpose: "The improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition of young men."

The first known Y dormitory was noted in 1867, when the Chicago YMCA had a 42-room dormitory in Farwell Hall.

These were insufficient, though, and at least since 1876 there had been calls for Ys in large metropolitan areas to set up training schools.

The term "bodybuilding" was first used in 1881 by Robert Roberts, a member of the staff at the Boston YMCA. He also developed the exercise classes that led to today's fitness workouts.

Fostered America’s camping movement, starting in 1885

Ellen Brown, who was not only the first female employee of a YMCA, but also the first boy's work secretary in the movement, was hired in 1886.

The student Ys of that era included as members John Mott and Robert Wilder, who founded the Student Volunteer Movement in 1888.

The need for a formal school was also felt in the Midwest, with a YMCA Training School housed in the downtown Chicago YMCA opening in 1890 with five students.

A century later, George Williams College became part of Aurora University, in Aurora, Ill. It ultimately became George Williams College, after merging with the Western Secretarial Institute, a summer training school in Lake Geneva, Wis., in 1892.

Professional football began at a YMCA. In 1895, in Latrobe, Pa., John Brailer was paid $10 plus expenses by the local YMCA to replace the injured quarterback on their team.

The name "volleyball" was first used in 1896 during an exhibition at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Mass., to better describe how the ball went back and forth over the net.

After Dudley's death in 1897, the camp was renamed Camp Dudley.

Gideons International was formed on July 1, 1899, at the YMCA in Janesville, Wis., by three men (Nicholson, Hill and Knights) who had come up with the idea a few months earlier.

Toastmasters International was invented in 1903 as an older youth public speaking program by Ralph C. Smedley, education director of the Bloomington (Ill.) YMCA. Smedley realized that older boys visiting the Y needed training in communication skills.

The first was the development of mass swim lessons in 1906 by George Corsan at the Detroit YMCA. What Corsan did was to teach swimming strokes on land, starting with the crawl stroke first, as a confidence builder.

After Lord S.S. Baden-Powell and others started Scouting in 1907 in Britain, it spread to America, and many YMCAs here had Boy Scout programs around the turn of the century.

Soon it was decided by the Boy Scouts that they needed their own national organization, and in June, 1910, a temporary national headquarters for the Boy Scouts was housed in a YMCA office in New York City.

The first official steps to organizing the fund began in 1913.

A Japanese YMCA was founded in San Francisco in 1917.

The Southern YMCA College and Graduate School was founded in Nashville, Tenn., in 1919, with the help of Vanderbilt University, Peabody College for Teachers, and Scarritt College for Christian Workers.

Y leaders were urged to become more businesslike in both their appearance and their operations, a topic raised by Y boards since the 1920s.

In 1922, a plan for voluntary certification to be a YMCA secretary (today's director) was drawn up.

In 1940 he was asked to create a color version and created the oil painting that has been reproduced approximately 500 million times, making it one of the most popular works of art in history.

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded for pioneering work in peace making was jointly awarded in 1946 to John R. Mott, a leader of the YMCA movement in America, and to Emily Greene Balch.

The Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics, formed in 1951, was created as a result of the efforts of the YMCA. A group of 20 national agencies, the Council was organized to expand cooperation in the field of aquatics.

In 1958, the United States and Canadian YMCAs launched Buildings for Brotherhood in which the two nations raised $55 million which was matched by $6 million overseas.

Jazzercise, a famous aerobic exercise program for women, was started in 1969 in Evanston, Ill., by a dancer, Judi Missett.

Child care for working parents, an extension of what YMCAs had done informally for years, came with a rush in 1983 and quickly joined health and fitness, camping, and residences as a major source of YMCA income.

In 1984, it was reported that YMCAs collectively were the largest operator of swimming pools in the world.

In 1994, when the Beverly Regional YMCA merged with the Cape Ann YMCA, our association started developing and strengthening a sense of community across the North Shore.

In 1996, child care became the movement's second largest source of revenue, after membership dues.

In 1997, only Springfield College and the George Williams College of Aurora (Ill.) University retain close ties with the movement.

With the combined resources of four YMCAs, our newly formed association invested in a property in Ipswich, launched a capital campaign and built a new YMCA. The building opened in December of 1999; bringing the number of local Ys in our association to five.

In 2006, the Haverhill YMCA joined the YMCA of the North Shore, growing our service area to 25 cities and towns.