YMCA Cayman board members have just announced plans to establish a Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in the Cayman Islands.

Board members include Randy Von Kanel, J.C. Calhoun, Donnie Ebanks, Norman Klein, Wil Pineau, Dale Crighton, Ormond Williams, Paul Tibbetts, Sharon Roulstone, Mike Flowers, Andrew Johnson, Rhonda Kelly, Christina Rowlandson, Jackie Hansen, Ms Tibbetts-Brandes, Gary Rutty, Christina Kirkaldy, Collin Anglin, Garth Arch and Jamal Young. Ex-oficio members include Alson Ebanks, Jennifer Ahearn and Jasmina Gilpin.

In response to the many good programmes already in existence board secretary JC Calhoun said, “There are lots of good programmes, Little League being one of them, swim team being another. We need to take a look and decide, well, is there enough of that already, or do we want to get involved in that? We don’t want to duplicate efforts or step on anybody’s toes. We just want to help where help is needed. The primary goal is to make Cayman a better place.

The board is working on putting together a public event Saturday, 3 November, to officially launch the Y in Cayman. The YMCA Family Fun Day will feature activities for adults and children and will be an opportunity for the public to learn more about the YMCA. More information about the event will be given in the near future.

“This is just a beginning. We are taking our time to make sure that this organisation is a lasting, strong addition to our nation for the good of our people. We’re not trying to jump out too far and say we’re going to do this that or the other. Really we’re taking our time to do this right. We really value very much everybody’s input on how to make this a great YMCA,” Mr. Von Kanel said. “We’re listening.”

History of the YMCA

The Young Men’s Christian Association (commonly known as YMCA or simply the Y) is a worldwide organisation with more than 58 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations.[1] It was founded on 6 June 1844 in London and it aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy “body, mind and spirit”. These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red) triangle – part of all YMCA logos. The different local YMCAs are voluntarily affiliated through their national organisations. The national organisations in turn are part of both an Area Alliance and the World Alliance of YMCAs. The World Alliance’s main motto is: “Empowering young people” and it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Source: Wikipedia.

Y.M.C.A. song and dance

A popular song, “Y.M.C.A.” was recorded by American disco group Village People and released in 1978. The song reached No. 2 on the US charts in early 1979 and reached No.1 in the UK around the same time, becoming the group’s biggest hit. It is one of fewer than forty singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.

Taken at face value, its lyrics extol the virtues of the Young Men’s Christian Association. However, because of the gay culture from which the group sprang, the song was implicitly understood as celebrating the YMCA’s reputation as a popular cruising and hookup spot, particularly for the younger gay men to whom it was addressed. However, Victor Willis, Village People lead singer and writer of the lyrics, insists that he did not write YMCA as a gay anthem (Willis is heterosexual). Rather, Willis said he wrote the song as a reflection of young urban black youth fun at the YMCA such as basketball and swimming.

YMCA is also the name of a group dance with cheerleader Y-M-C-A choreography invented to fit the song. One of the phases involves moving arms to form the letters Y-M-C-A as they are sung in the chorus:

Y —arms outstretched and raised upwards

M —made by bending the elbows from the ‘Y’ pose so the fingertips meet over the chest[6]

C —arms extended to the left

A —hands held together above head

Source: Wikipedia