Lehigh Valley, PA – The Greater Valley YMCA is honoring its volunteers this month by recognizing Peter Dent of Allentown and Lara Kash of Nazareth, two lifetime members who have played significant roles in the success of their local facilities.

“Peter and Lara symbolize the small army of community members who play such a vital role in enabling us to provide such a wide range of services to people throughout the Lehigh Valley,” said Greater Valley CEO David Fagerstrom. “Our volunteers lend their knowledge, their skills and their experience to our facilities and our members by teaching classes, by fundraising, advocating the mission of the YMCA, and sharing the impact of the Y in the community. Without them, we would never be able to deliver such quality services and we are truly grateful for their contributions.”

Like many Y members, Dent and Kash both joined as youngsters and say they have benefitted tremendously through their association with their local YMCAs.

“I started at the Allentown YMCA in 1968 when I was 10-years-old and my brother (U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent) was 8-years-old,” Peter Dent said. “We played in the table tennis tournaments and I have to say that my brother did better than me. We grew up at the Y. We did programs from Minnows to Sharks, Rookie League Basketball, Cadets and just about everything else.

“We spent just pretty much our whole Saturdays growing up at the Y,” he said. “We just about lived there. Over the last twenty plus years, my wife and kids have also done numerous programs and benefitted from our family membership. ”

A former board chairman at the DaVinci Science Center in Allentown, he was looking for another opportunity to serve the community when he returned to his YMCA roots. Over the past four years as President of the Allentown YMCA Board of Directors, Dent led the board as it worked though a search process for a new director, improved the institution’s finances, increased membership, built better relationships with community partners and oversaw significant physical improvements to the Allentown facility. During 2016, Dent guided the institution through a merger with the Greater Valley YMCA and separation of the Allentown YWCA from combined operations with the Allentown YMCA.

“People have to understand that YMCAs are not-for-profit organizations,” he said. “And they are much more than just ‘gym-and-swim.’ We serve kids, we serve seniors, we serve the community.”

Kash, an attorney, joined the Easton Y as a youngster when her mother signed her up for swimming lessons. Today she teaches yoga and chairs the facility’s annual advocacy and support campaign ; she enjoys her time just as much now as when she was a child.

“In our branch there are a ton of children’s activities and if they weren’t here, where would they be?” she said. “Nazareth doesn’t have a community center. The Y is our community center — a place to get involved and be active. I think every kid should have that opportunity, and at the Y, they do.”

Kash said her volunteer time commitment to the YMCA is minimal, especially when compared to the benefits. “It’s about 3 to 4 hours a month,” she said.

“Everywhere I have been, I have been a member of the Y,” Kash said. “My father was a camp counselor when he was in his 20s and he still talks about it. It’s always been part of my family’s life, and now it is part of my children’s lives.”

To learn more about volunteering at your local YMCA or with the Greater Valley YMCA, please go to greatervalleyymca.org.

About the Greater Valley YMCA

The Greater Valley YMCA is committed to changing lives across our community. At each of our separate but united branches, we teach the values of living healthy lifestyles, strengthen the family unit and help youngsters and adults feel good about themselves, developing in them a sense of dignity and self-worth. We serve the entire community, from the young child just learning to swim to the active older adult seeking the social, recreational, and physical activities the Y offers. Community members are served regardless of age, race, gender, religious affiliation, or ability to pay. Membership fees are reasonable and several payment options are provided, as is financial assistance.

For over 100 years, the Y has made tangible differences in the communities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Catasauqua, Easton, Forks, Nazareth, those comprising the Slate Belt region and the Lehigh Valley. Founded as individual YMCAs as early as 1897, the following branches of the Greater Valley Y merged together under the Nazareth YMCA between 2010 and 2015: the Nazareth YMCA, the Suburban North Family YMCA, the Family YMCA of Easton, Phillipsburg & Vicinity and the Bethlehem YMCA. The Slate Belt branch was chartered in 2010, construction began spring of 2013, and it opened on January 5, 2015. At the beginning of 2014, the YMCA Pre-K Counts program was relocated, joining the early childhood education programs in the Forks YMCA Education Center. A name change for the corporate entity from the Nazareth YMCA to the Greater Valley YMCA was fully approved in 2014. In July 2016, the Pocono Family YMCA began a management agreement with the Greater Valley YMCA. The Allentown YMCA merged on January 1, 2017. For more information about the Greater Valley YMCA, please contact the Association Office at 610-438-6065. greatervalleyymca.org 

About the Y

The Y is one of the nation’s leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Across the U.S., 2,700 Ys engage 21 million men, women and children – regardless of age, income or background – to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nation’s health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Anchored in more than 10,000 communities, the Y has the long-standing relationships and physical presence not just to promise, but to deliver, lasting personal and social change. ymca.net