Xander Williams , who attends our Child Care After School program in Morgan Hill , at a 49ers youth football day .
Mount Madonna YMCA
Building a Stronger South County Community
Photo provided by the Mount Madonna YMCA
When you think of the Y , you probably think of a gym with treadmills and weight equipment , where adults go to sweat and kids play sports on the weekend . You also might think of picking up your child from after school programs or listening to the stories your child tells you about the Y ’ s outrageously fun summer day camp . But what you might not realize is that for almost 30 years , the Mt . Madonna YMCA has been devoted to strengthening the South Santa Clara County community .
It all began in 1979 with a small group of fathers , who liked to spend weekends with their children celebrating and studying the native tribes of California and camping in the wilderness . John Gerhardt , Gary Silacci , Ron Friis and Henk Marselis were all active members in the YMCA Indian Guides , YMCA Indian Princesses ( YIGYIP ) program . While they loved the experience that YIGYIP offered their families , they had to commute from Morgan Hill to South Valley YMCA in San Jose to take part in the father / children program .
John , a father of eight who also served as a South Valley YMCA board member and dedicated YMCA fundraiser , started talking to the other Morgan Hill and Gilroy parents in YIGYIP to see if they had an interest in forming a Y closer to home . His vision came right at the time that South County ’ s population was exploding . Between 1970 to 1980 , the Morgan Hill community had almost tripled from 6,485 to 17,060 residents .
Gary , Ron and Henk enthusiastically endorsed John ’ s idea , and over time , the four of them would become known as the “ Founding Fathers .” Their first move was to create their own Crow Nation of YIGYIP , which was filled with eight families from Morgan Hill and two families from Gilroy . Afterwards , Gerhardt said the group really pushed for their own charter in South County .
“ We had every intention of getting approval for our own Y , so we beat the necessary fundraising goal to show how much we were invested in the community ,” Gerhardt said . “ We also started a Y ’ s Men group , an auxiliary group that existed to support the Y and raise
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