Growing up, my sister and I spent all of our time at the stables. We started riding horses very young. It cost a fortune so we would clean stalls, exercise horses, stack hay and were trail guides to afford summer riding camp. I have many fond memories growing up in the mud and spending sunrise to sunset with all the animals. All summer we lived there. Toward the end of each summer we would go to Rockefeller State Park with our horses. We would ride the trails, picnic and relax.
The best part was when we would take the horses for a swim. After untacking the horses we would ride with just a bridle, and the horses would run into the lake. I would always fall off and swim along with my horse (trying my best not to get kicked). The horses would whinny in excitement and play in the water. It was like we were all little kids. Twenty years later, it is still one my best summer memories.
Andrea Robinson, Human Resources Director
When I relocated to the U.S. from England when I was 9 years old, my mother enrolled me at the White Plains YMCA, since she did not have afterschool care for me at that time. During my first few years in the States, I was bullied on a regular basis at school and the YMCA was my only safe-haven. I learned how to swim at the Y and also made many good friends. That staff members became a part of my support group! Each and every day, I longed for 3pm to arrive, so that I would be able to go to the Y. Since my experience was so positive, as soon as my daughter was of age, I enrolled her in the WP Y. She remained there until becoming a Counselor in Training. Tatiana also loves to swim and loves the Y. We are both very happy to be a part of the Rye YMCA. It’s a great place to be.
Diana Vita, Group Wellness Director:
When I was 11 years old, I went to horseback riding camp for a week with the Girl Scouts. I learned how to ride a horse and with that I also had to feed and groom it. I loved horses and to me that experience was something I will never forget. At first I missed home very much and cried a lot. The horses took my mind off of missing my family and finally I came to enjoy myself. I learned to love riding and always wanted to own my own horse. I also was extremely sore after all that because I learned riding takes many techniques. This was my only experience for summer camp, but it was the best summer ever. One day I will be back in the saddle again!Ann E. Ivan- Fitness Center Director:
I grew up in California and attended a Girl Scout Day Camp in San Francisco, in a part of the city I would never go to otherwise. To this day I don’t know exactly where that camp was located. We had caterpillar cocoons in a tank to watch them hatch. I was not there when the butterfly emerged, but I was given the job of feeding it afterward. I saw the butterfly’s long tongue curl out to sip the sugar water. The wings amazed me. I will never forget the feeling that I was nurturing this beautiful, mysterious creature.
But my summers were mostly spent with family at “the coast” which meant Mendocino County, a little bit North of San Francisco. Here are jagged, rocky beaches and steep cliffs, “where the Redwoods meet the Sea.” We ran wild as feral children, barefoot and dirty. We swam in the surf and climbed the cliffs, explored the coves and hillsides. Night beach, jacket for warmth, shorts still on…bonfires of driftwood… the salt-encrusted driftwood released bright sparks, making sudden popping noises as it burned. Pounding waves our constant backdrop of sound. Polliwogs at the river.
The whole of nature belonged to us. The vast open space of the Pacific left room for imagination to develop. Students of shifting sand and rock we were. Of the common, and then strange fish brought in by the fisherman… mollusks and bivalves and blue jays… deer and raptors. All were studied in immersion, during different seasons, on repeated visits to this Camp over all my younger years.
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