‘I’m fired up tonight,” said Scott Krouse, executive director of the YMCA Casco Bay Branch at a fundraiser that raised $60,000 to provide one-on-one support for members with disabilities.

“The Y is all about strengthening the community,” Krouse said, “and you’re doing something really good for individuals in our community who may have had an accident, have an illness, or need some support.”

“If somebody has an issue that is ever-present, we’ll help them indefinitely,” said adaptive trainer Jacob Thich. His clients include William Meier of Yarmouth, who sustained a head injury in a motorcycle accident.

“They put me in the pool, and then in a weight class, and they helped me get my strength back,” Meier said.

A World War II combat medic who was a liberator at a concentration camp, Harry Blumenthal of Yarmouth had a stroke a year and a half ago. He says he’s made more progress in the past six months since he’s been in adaptive training with Thich than in the entire previous year.

“I’m very impressed,” Blumenthal said. “My goal is to be able to walk without a walker and do more things.”

Krouse presented the Thompson Grove Award to Dick Webster, a member and volunteer who raised $20,000 for the Y’s most recent annual campaign. Webster saw the need for a Parkinson’s support group and then for a Parkinson’s-specific exercise program, and he led the effort to establish both at the Casco Bay Branch.

“It’s helping people, and it gives me joy that I’m able to do this,” Webster said.

Julia Pitney of Yarmouth talked about how her father, Peter Greenleaf, who passed away in January, enjoyed adaptive training even as his condition worsened due due to multiple system atrophy, a rare degenerative disease. “My dad loved going to the Y,” she said.

Toward the end of Greenleaf’s life, his wife and caretaker Katherine Greenleaf was undergoing treatment for cancer – and signing up for the 12-week LiveStrong program for cancer survivors.

“It mainstreams people back into the world at a time when it’s easy to get isolated,” she said. “You’re not alone. It puts you into another context. You’re with other people with cancer, and you all know it but you don’t dwell on it.”

Katherine Greenleaf is now cancer-free – and hooked on her regular exercise sessions at the Y.

Amy Paradysz is a freelance writer and photographer based in Scarborough. She can be contacted at:

amyparadysz@gmail.com

This story was updated at 7:30 p.m., April 25, to correct the medical reason Peter Greenleaf was in adaptive training at the YMCA.

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