According to multiple published media reports, the little boy drowned in his apartment complex swimming pool some time Sunday afternoon, on Mother’s Day.

There are not many details. Since the initial news reports, no one has confirmed all of the circumstances but most reporters note that there were no adults or lifeguards at the pool.

He probably didn’t yell for help; most children don’t when they’re drowning. Drowning victims are often exhausted or struggling under the water. You cannot always hear them.

Every year, as the weather turns warm, we start counting the number of children and adults who drown. The Houston area leads the state in drownings.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that for every child who drowns, four children are hospitalized for near-drowning.  Children and adults who survive may suffer permanent brain damage.

What can we do?

1. Teach your child to swim.
2. Learn to swim yourself; it’s never too late to learn how.
3. Never swim alone.
4. Only swim in areas monitored by a lifeguard.
5. Remember that flotation devices (water wings, life vests) are no substitute for parental supervision.
6. Always watch your child when he or she is in or near the water.

The YMCA offers swim lessons. If you cannot afford lessons, let us know; financial assistance is available. This is too important for money to be an obstacle.

Learn more about drowning prevention through the YMCA’s Water Wise program.

We can stop this.

Protect our children. Prevent drowning.

Give mom the gift of health; buy her a YMCA Gift Card.  YMCA Gift Cards can be used for personal training, massage therapy, a YMCA membership or even an adult salsa dancing class!  And they never expire.

Want more ideas for mother’s day gifts?

How about a coupon book good for someone else doing all those chores that mom does around the house?

Check out our YMCA Pinterest page to learn how to make home-made picture frames, bookmarks, “bouquets” made out of your child’s hand prints and other easy, free or low-cost arts and crafts projects.

This Saturday, April 27, the YMCA of Greater Houston will celebrate YMCA Healthy Kids Day®, our national initiative to improve the health and well-being of kids.

YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day® is a free community event held at each of the more than 35 YMCA centers from 10 am to 1 pm.  Though activities at each Houston area YMCA may vary, some activities may include:

• Arts and crafts
• Moon walks
• Face painting
• Fitness challenges
• Food, fun and games for the whole family
• Exercise demonstrations
• Health screenings
• Facility tours
• Summer program registrations (swim lessons, day camp, overnight camp, youth sports and more!)
• Giveaways and fun prizes

Not a YMCA member? You don’t have to be to come to Healthy Kids Day.

Interested in joining the Y? We are waiving the joining fee now through April 30. That’s a savings of up to $100!

Join us for YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day® this Saturday and get your children ready for summer fun.  Click here to find the YMCA nearest you. Read about the benefits of YMCA membership here.

Healthy Kids Day is supported locally by Southwest Airlines and Texas Children’s Pediatrics.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Michael Ungar, PhD, who says, “the best camps don’t provide cookie-cutter solutions to what kids need. Instead, great camps understand that the factors that make children resilient are cumulative.”

Great camps offer the seven following experiences:

A child soars on the “Screamer” rope swing at YMCA Camp Cullen during weekend camp.

1. New relationships, not just with peers but with trusted adults other than children’s parents. These new relationships teach children social skills to cope with new situations.

2. A powerful identity that makes children feel confident in front of others provides children with something genuine to like about themselves. A child may not be the best on the ropes course, the fastest simmer, or the next teen idol when he sings, but chances are that a good camp counselor is going to help a child find something to be proud of that he can do well.

3. Camps help children feel in control of their lives.  Those experiences of self-efficacy travel home as easily as a special art project or the pine cone they carry in their backpack.

Boys canoe on Lake Livingston at YMCA Camp Cullen.

4. Camps make sure that all children are treated fairly. The wonderful thing about camp is that every child starts without the baggage they carry from home or school. At camp, kids find opportunities to be valued for who they are.

5. At camp, children get what they need to develop physically. Ideally, they experience fresh air, exercise, a balance between routine and unstructured time, and all the good food their bodies need.

6. Perhaps, best of all, camps offer children a chance to feel like they belong. All those goofy chants and team songs, the sense of common purpose, and the attachment to the identity that camps promote go a long way to offering a children a sense of being rooted.

7. Finally, camps offer children a better sense of their culture. Camps are places where children can think about their values and share with others the everyday practices that make them feel a part of their families, communities, or ethnic group.

Does your child’s camp offer these experiences? Click here to learn more about summer overnight camp at YMCA Camp Cullen, located on the shores of Lake Livingston, just north of Houston in Trinity, Texas. The YMCA also offers various day camps, specialty camps and teen camps all summer long.  Find the camp that is right for your child at your neighborhood YMCA today!

Michael Ungar, PhD, is a professor of social work at Dalhousie University and scientific researcher of the Resilience Research Centre. Read Ungar’s full article on camp and resiliency on the American Camp Association website or learn more about Ungar’s research here.

The Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA is hosting its first Annual Over The Edge event on March 23, 2013. The Four Seasons Hotel Houston is the setting for this unique, fundraising event. Eighty-five lucky participants will get a chance to enjoy a breathtaking 360 degree view from the top of the Four Seasons Hotel Houston, rappelling down the face of the 29 story hotel down to the ground.

Make a difference in your community and help thousands of children and families.  Funds raised benefit the YMCA Partners Campaign, providing financial assistance and scholarships to those who otherwise could not afford to participate in the YMCA’s life-changing programs. Join the Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA for Over the Edge 2013!

There are still a few spots remaining. If you’d like to get involved, learn more, or reserve your spot, email us at OverTheEdge@ymcahouston.org today.

If you can’t join us for this year’s Over The Edge event, you can still support the Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA by donating here.

Learn, grow and thrive with a career at the Y.

Imagine going to work knowing that what you do each day positively affects the lives of the people in your community. Working at the Y, you’ll discover more than a job—you’ll enjoy a career with a future and the opportunity to make a lasting difference in the lives of those around you. Our staff members—of all ages and from diverse back­grounds and life experiences—enjoy the personal satisfaction that comes from nurturing the potential of youth and teens, improving the nation’s health and well-being and providing support to our neighbors.

The YMCA of Greater Houston is looking for 1,200 seasonal positions such as life guards, swim instructors and summer day camp counselors. This week your neighborhood Y is hosting two job fairs: Thursday, March 14: 4 to 7 pm and Saturday, March 16: 10 am to 1 pm

“If you love working with kids and you are interested in strengthening your community, you’ll love working at the YMCA,” said Jennifer Lopez, Vice President of Human Resources at Houston YMCA. “YMCA staff members get to make a difference in the lives of children by helping them grow and develop their skills. They also gain some valuable work experience at the beginning of their career.”

People who start working for the YMCA as seasonal employees sometimes go on to part-time and ultimately, full-time work.

Click here for detailed information about the YMCA job fairs.

“…If I wasn’t in school, the creek or the kitchen, I was thinking about my next trip to the YMCA. For that matter, most of my time at school was spent day-dreaming about the Y. I’d envision the walk up the stairs to the basketball court on the second floor, where you could catch the beautiful stench of sweat, faintly hear the squeak of shoes, cheers of the moms, and interruptions of whistles.”

Sunday mornings were holy. Saturday mornings were spiritual.

In a way, those winter basketball mornings and summer baseball afternoons are now a pleasant memory. The trophies were chunked years ago. The athletic abilities, for some reason, disappeared beneath my computer and desk.

Then, a few weeks ago, all those memories flooded back. I attended my first meeting at our local Harriet & Joe Foster Family YMCA on 34th Street where I have joined a number of other professionals in the community to make up an advisory board to the Y.

There I was, in a button-down shirt, holding a business card, thinking about my office, my employees and the bills I needed to pay. No matter how hard you chase memories, your shoes usually bring you back to the present. My loafers were eloquent reminders that I wasn’t about to sprint across the baseline in search of a swing pass and an open jumper. Instead, I had become a grown man, formed in so many ways by my time at the YMCA.

• At the Y, I learned how to shake an adult’s hand and look him in the eyes.
• At the Y, I learned the ability to work with teammates was more important, and easier, than going it alone.
• At the Y, I learned how to respect authority, even if they were wearing striped shirts.
• At the Y, I learned how to win. More importantly, I learned how to lose with grace.
• At the Y, I learned that spiritual – not physical – health is most important.
• At the Y, I met friends I still call today.
• At the Y, my Mom and Dad were always in the stands, supporting their children. I never realized how much our family was shaped there.
• And at the Y, I was molded into a half-decent young man.

For another few weeks, our Harriet & Joe Foster Family YMCA is holding its annual Partners Campaign. During this campaign, they ask residents of our community to help support their contribution to our neighborhoods (they serve the Heights, Garden Oaks and Oak Forest, just like The Leader).

There’s probably no better way to explain the value of a gift to them than by sharing what they accomplished last year with the money they raised:

• They spent $84,000 providing after-school child care to more than 110 young children whose parents couldn’t afford anything.
• They spent $96,000 on summer days camps, where 60 percent of the 240 attendees could have never attended because of financial restraints.
• They used $120,000 to set up apartment outreach centers for at-risk children.
• And they take care of so many senior citizens in our area who might otherwise sit silently at home with little connection to healthy activities.

Asking for money around the same time W-2s get mailed is a difficult task. Then again, if you think of all the ways our tax dollars are spent, I’d much rather give something to maybe the most genuine grass-roots movement in our area.

The YMCA has spent decades molding young men and women. If you have a couple of extra bucks and would like to help them continue their work, please shoot me an email or give me a call. I’m glad someone did it for me 30 years ago.”

Click here to read Jonathan McElvy’s full story.  You may email Jonathan at jonathan@theleadernews.com.  Support the YMCA and donate to the Partners Campaign here.

Sure, I went to summer camp as a kid, but I don’t have deep, fond memories of my experience and never kept in touch with the friends I made and couldn’t tell you one of my counselor’s names if my life depended on it.

I must have gone to the wrong camp…

My daughter on a horse for the first time. His name is Oatmeal.

Last weekend, my husband, my four year-old daughter and I packed up for a weekend of family camping at the newly re-opened YMCA Camp Cullen, just 1 1/2 hours north of Houston, nestled in the tall pines along the shores of Lake Livingston.  The camp had been closed since July 2010 when the dining hall burned to the ground.  That fire hastened plans to rebuild the historic camp, providing the opportunity for Camp Cullen to also rebuild the infrastructure and amenities through a $24 million fundraising campaign.

More than $19 million has already been raised and YMCA Camp Cullen is officially back open for business.  There is a new dining hall and the cabins, built by Weekley Homes, are new too.  But the new stuff isn’t why the camp is so great.

I watched my daughter’s joy as she rode a horse for the first time.  She climbed an Alpine Tower and swung while dangling in a harness, suspended in mid-air.  She didn’t think she could go that high, but Len Masengale, the camp’s director, helped her believe in herself.  And she made friends.  Not just with the other kids, but with the counselors too.

And she could tell you all of her counselors’ names, from Mr. Justin, who taught her how to shoot a bow and arrow, to Mr. Aaron and Mr. Brad, who always had time to chat and gave her high fives when she accomplished something, to Miss Ashley, who led her horseback ride.

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I work for the Y.  It is my job, in part, to market programs, including camp.  In fact, our brochure says, “YMCA Camp Cullen provides an opportunity for your child to develop new skills, gain self-confidence and make lasting friendships.”

There is truth in advertising.

My daughter did things at camp that I would not have thought she was capable of doing.  But the folks at Camp Cullen believed in her.  I am amazed at the ability of the camp staff to connect with children.

We did arts and crafts, canoeing, paintball, hayrides, s’mores and more, all together as a family, all in the span of two days.  Imagine what kids get to do there during the summer!

The view from our canoe.

My family will go camping together again.  And again.  I never thought I’d say this, but I am now a happy camper.  And my daughter is too!

Click here to see a 60-second video of my family’s camping trip.

Learn more about family and summer resident camp experiences at YMCA Camp Cullen here.  Be sure to like the YMCA Camp Cullen Facebook page!

Wondering whether your child is ready to try a tri?  Here is an excerpt from a first-hand account of a Houston family’s experience during last year’s YMCA training program and Houston Kids Triathlon race:

Pamela’s son finishes the swim and gets ready to transition into the bike ride.

After weeks of training the big day is finally here. The YMCA did a great job helping the kids work on their triathlon training. We did our own training outside of the once a weekend gathering but when you ask my son, he will tell you it wasn’t enough. This is the 1st year of the Kids Triathlon at University of Houston central campus. The event was sold out! There were thousands of people there.  His coach from the YMCA had completed an Iron Man before so who better to coach the kids than someone with all that experience! We had difficulty locating his goggles this morning. Lucky for us there was a tent there that was selling them and they had an extra swim cap. It was a crazy morning!

Pamela’s family high fives her son as he heads for the finish line.

Here he comes down the finish line! We couldn’t be more proud. We are all giving him a high-five as he goes by. He said the worst part for him is that he should have trained for more cardio. He should have swum more than the 8 laps and biked more than the 6 miles. He’s already talking about next year!

This was just an excerpt from Pamela Kramer’s story on her son’s triathlon experience.  Click here to read the full version and to see more pictures of her son competing.

The YMCA’s Houston Kids Triathlon training program meets once a week for 7 weeks. Week one will serve as an introduction to triathlons and the following weeks will focus on the disciplines of swimming, biking and running.

Pamela’s son, posing with his medal.

All participants must register for the Houston Kids Triathlon prior to registering for the clinic and be able to complete at least 50 meter swim using crawl stroke. Most clinics start the week of February 8. Please sign up by February 4.

The clinics are free for both YMCA members and non-members.

Learn more about the YMCA’s Houston Kids Triathlon Training program here.  For more information or to register for the Houston Kids Triathlon, click here.