Meet Joe, a member of our volunteer Board of Directors

Having grown up in Scotch Plains, Joe has been coming to our Y for as long as he can remember. He started with Parent and Me swim lessons and continued through the different stages of our swim lessons program. He went to Family Swim and Open Swim, and was part of our 7th Grade Initiative, a program that provides free memberships to 7th graders in our service area. During this time, he took teen classes like Yoga and Cycle and exercised in our Wellness Center.

“It was nice to have this space that offered programs for people in our age range,” Joe recalls. “I met kids who not only went to my middle school (Terrill), but the other one in town as well.”

When he turned 16, Joe took a lifeguarding course and began working as a lifeguard at our Y. He then became a swim instructor, working here in the Aquatics Department from 2014-2017. Joe also is a twin and his brother worked here as well. Through their years of membership and then employment at our Y, they came to know many of our team members, including Tracy, our associate executive director, and Kim, our Chief Executive Officer.

After college, Joe started his career in development and fundraising. When Kim approached him about joining our Board of Directors, he thought it would be a good opportunity. The Board of Directors are a group of volunteers who help ensure that we meet our mission by guiding policies, assisting with fundraising, evaluating our programs, providing financial oversight, advocating for our Y in the community, and more.

“I was very interested to learn what goes into running a very local organization, one that is embedded in the community,” he says. “I also had spent so much time at the Y, which made it a nice fit.”

Joe joined the board in 2021, and has learned a lot, and contributed a lot so far. He likes that his ideas are heard, and that he offers a different voice to the group, having grown up at the Y and being a recent college graduate.

“I get an inside look at how much thought goes into every decision,” he adds, noting that it’s been especially interesting to learn about the current building expansion project. “There’s so much more than what you see as a member in terms of what it takes to make a program or initiative successful.”