 |
  |
|---|
|
|
|---|
At the Y: Wayne Cameron and Nicole Guthrie
Last week the Down East Russell Wiggins YMCA in Ellsworth held its annual meeting.
I am a big fan of the YMCA annual meeting. There’s no fancy-schmancy schmoozing or fakeness. It’s all about seeing friends and celebrating the people who make the Y work.
The Y has its annual meeting in the gym, covers tables up with clothes, serves punch in plastic cups and Jeanne Wood goes crazy (in a good super-mom way) cooking food for the event. Macaroni and cheese, ham, chicken, salad line up in bowls. People help themselves, bring it back to the table and often gobble it down and go back for seconds while teasing their neighbors.
It’s community and caring and home all wrapped up in one event.
But even though the food and people are great, the best part of the meeting is always the awards.
Youth Sports Director Shane Lowell had to take off his baseball hat to present awards that night. He cringed about it. Everyone who knew him cringed too. Shane Lowell without his hat is just not Shane Lowell. He did it, though, not just because someone told him to, but to show respect to the volunteers he was congratulating. The removal of his trade mark hat was just another sign to the community about how important the award recipients were.
Lowell was giving out an award for Wayne Cameron, when he held out the microphone for Caleb Cameron, Wayne’s son.
“Somebody else wants to say something,” Lowell said.
Cameron bounded up to the make-shift stage, a bundle of blonde haired energy. His Red Sox shirt billowed out from around his waist.
“My dad’s … he’s always been there for me when I fell down or something,” Caleb’s boy voice echoed across the gym. Everyone was quiet. Caleb's words sunk in:
My dad’s always been there for me.
The YMCA honored Wayne Cameron for service to youth, all youth, not just Caleb.
“He has been involved in coaching at the YMCA and Ellsworth Travel Soccer Club since before his son Caleb was born,” Lowell said.
That’s over 15 years.
But even if he hadn’t been a coach. Even if he hadn’t dedicated his time for years, Wayne Cameron is still his son’s hero.
That makes him my hero, too.
Cameron’s dad is always there for him.
Everyone deserves a dad like that.
There were over 125 volunteers helping with youth sports at the Y this year, according to Lowell. These people gave up their time and energy to help kids, local kids, our kids. They put themselves out there to make a difference.
That sort of heroics isn’t just limited to the volunteers at the Y. It’s also part of the make-up of the employees.
Blonde, perky and capable of great silliness, Nicole Guthrie graduated from GSA last year. She coordinates rentals and works with the kids in the after-school program.
One day school was cancelled. The Y team had to swing into action to unlock the after-school center. Someone close by had to get there and open the doors. Director Rick Parker called Nicole. She rushed to the scene, unlocked the door, welcomed the kids.
When Parker arrived he realized she was still in her pajamas. She shrugged about it. She knew there was a job to do, kids to get inside, kids to take care of. It didn’t matter if she looked her best or even if she were wearing clothes with actual buttons and a zipper. What mattered were those kids.
Parker quoted things the kids and fellow counselors said about Nicole:
She is nice. She makes me laugh.
She plays games with me and lets me win.
She puts kids first by putting them before her own comforts.
“Everyone is created for a reason or a purpose,” Parker quoted. “Sometimes it’s hard to know what that purpose is.”
I think it’s safe to bet that Nicole already knows and embraces that purpose. I think it's safe to say Wayne Cameron has done the same thing. That’s why they are both a hero.