Y Talk: The Y Is a Magical Place for Kids of All Ages by Cate Mellen

Before I took my current position at the Y, I used to work at my local library. It’s probably one of the two best jobs I’ve ever had. I love books. I always have, even from the time I was very small. When my brother and sister were out playing in the yard, all I wanted to do was curl up with a book and escape into the pages.

Even today, my apartment is filled with books–arguably more books than I will probably be able to read in my lifetime. Yet that still doesn’t stop me from being drawn like a magnet to every bookstore I pass. And once I go in, it’s very hard to walk back out again empty-handed.

So getting a job in a library almost a decade ago was like a dream come true, since that meant I got to be surrounded by books every single day. Turns out, though, that working in a library did *not* mean having the luxurious opportunity to reverentially page through tomes at my leisure, and to explore the wonders within them. As a workplace, my library was fast-paced, and frenetic, and always eventful, and while I enjoyed every single minute of it, I actually read a lot less during the six years that I worked for a library than I ever did before or since.

But there was one delightful consequence of working at the library that I had not expected: it gave me a certain cachet—with the toddler set. My friends’ kids were always eager to visit me at the library, and when they were old enough they begged me to take them to the library every Saturday as a treat.

Then when my niece was about two years old, and really starting to get excited about her regular trips to the library, I left my job there and came to the Y full time. I remember being disappointed at the time, because I wasn’t going to be associated with one of her favorite places anymore.

The first time I went with my niece to her local library, I watched her eyes light up when we walked inside, and I saw the look of pure joy on her face when her mother told her that I worked in a library and got to spend time there every day. I sort of felt like a rock star that day. And giving up that adulation when I resigned a few months later was rather difficult.

But then a funny thing happened. My niece went to her local Y in New Jersey, where she started to take swim lessons and to play with other kids during open gym. She loved every minute of it, and every visit was a treat for her that she looked forward to for days beforehand—and talked about for days afterwards.

She might have been a little disappointed to learn that her aunt doesn’t work for the library anymore, but she thinks it is super cool that I work for the Y, and she’s looking forward to the day when she can come with me to my Y here in Carlisle.

For children like my niece, the Y is a magical place—it’s a place of freedom and adventure, where they can try new things. It’s a place of fun and community, where they can interact with a diverse group of other kids from their community. It’s a place of comfort and security, where they can develop and grow.

I’m proud to be a part of an organization that has such a lasting, positive impact on my niece, and on so many other children. Because when we give kids a place to go where they can be safe, where they can be curious, and where they can just be kids, then they will be capable of amazing things. The Y. For a Better Us.

-by Cate Mellen, Board Liaison and Development Director