[Y Stories] Willard Broom: "Keeping My Mind Open"

In this edition of Y Stories, Willard Broom recounts how he started out at the Y as a "drive-by participant," going to Friday Forum lectures and drinking coffee in the K Rooms.  Willard remembers how the Y's Freshman Camp changed his ideas about learning, and found the Y to be a safe haven for students and community members to dialogue and take action together. Willard is still very much involved in the Y today.

[Y Stories] is a part of the YMCA's celebration of 140 years of engaging people in service, reflection, and action.  Since 1873, the University YMCA has sponsored programs, organizations, and activities dedicated to building a better world, better human relations, and better care for the Earth.  

As part of this celebration, we would like to acknowledge stories of University YMCA alumni and friends in order to commemorate our lasting legacy. We would love to hear your Y story, because we believe that the power of storytelling is when people say "me too."  

Watch other videos from our friends and Y alumni:

• Diane Marlin: "The Battle to Save the Park"
• Ellen Dahlke: "A Place Where I Could"
• Miss V: "Home Away From Home"
• Mara Eisenstein & Cassie Carroll: "Greening Green Street"
• Lauren Haynes: "Never Stop Serving"
• Tom Seals: "For A Better Tradition"
• Anthony Santarelli: "A Place of Service, Reflection, & Action"
• Dick Thies and Bob Lauchner: "Difference Makers"
• Hari Rao: "My Kind of Place"

[Y Stories] Hari Rao: "My Kind of Place"

In this edition of Y Stories, we meet up with Hari Rao who started coming to the Y to have a quiet place to study but soon found the Y to be a great place to live, to volunteer, to meet new people and have fun. 


Watch the video:

[Y Stories] is a part of the YMCA's celebration of 140 years of engaging people in service, reflection, and action.  Since 1873, the University YMCA has sponsored programs, organizations, and activities dedicated to building a better world, better human relations, and better care for the Earth.  

As part of this celebration, we would like to acknowledge stories of University YMCA alumni and friends in order to commemorate our lasting legacy. We would love to hear your Y story, because we believe that the power of storytelling is when people say "me too."  

Watch other videos from our friends and Y alumni:

• Diane Marlin: "The Battle to Save the Park"
• Ellen Dahlke: "A Place Where I Could"
• Miss V: "Home Away From Home"
• Mara Eisenstein & Cassie Carroll: "Greening Green Street"
• Lauren Haynes: "Never Stop Serving"
• Tom Seals: "For A Better Tradition"
• Anthony Santarelli: "A Place of Service, Reflection, & Action"
• Dick Thies and Bob Lauchner: "Difference Makers"

[Y Stories] Dick Thies & Bob Lauchner: "Difference Makers"

Former Y Student Board Presidents Dick Theis and Bob Lauchner recall one of the YMCA's earliest engagements for racial equality in the 1950s.  At a time when barbershops were segregated in Champaign-Urbana, the Racial Equality Committee of the YMCA Student Board set up an integrated barbershop, wanting everyone to feel welcome and safe.  For 140 years, the Y has been a place for students to take up issues that they care about and make an impact in their communities.  Watch the video.

[Y Stories] is a part of the YMCA's celebration of 140 years of engaging people in service, reflection, and action.  Since 1873, the University YMCA has sponsored programs, organizations, and activities dedicated to building a better world, better human relations, and better care for the Earth.  

As part of this celebration, we would like to acknowledge stories of University YMCA alumni and friends in order to commemorate our lasting legacy. We would love to hear your Y story, because we believe that the power of storytelling is when people say "me too."  

Watch other videos from our friends and Y alumni:

• Diane Marlin: "The Battle to Save the Park"
• Ellen Dahlke: "A Place Where I Could"
• Miss V: "Home Away From Home"
• Mara Eisenstein & Cassie Carroll: "Greening Green Street"
• Lauren Haynes: "Never Stop Serving"
• Tom Seals: "For A Better Tradition"
• Anthony Santarelli: "A Place of Service, Reflection, & Action"
• Dick Thies and Bob Lauchner: "Difference Makers"