By Betsy Lockett, Summer 2022 Communication Intern. From playing in an elementary school and watching little smiles grow, to bleaching toys and monitoring temperatures, to now, taking phone calls, filing papers, and writing this blog from the Welcome Center, my time spent at the YMCA of the Pines has been extraordinarily fruitful in reward, knowledge, and experience.
Beginning in 2019, I worked for the Y’s School’s Out program at Cranberry Pines here in Medford. Still a kid myself, I had the chance to grow alongside my students, as they taught me patience, responsibility, adventure, creativity, and how to make some awesome rainbow loom bracelets. I worked in the school until the foreboding March of 2020, then by June, School’s Out staff was called to work an emergency childcare program here at camp. I took a one-year break from working School’s Out and returned in the fall of 2021. Fast forward through this past (almost) normal school year, I am now working as a communication intern in the Welcome Center of the YMCA of the Pines.
During the course of my internship, I have been able to learn so many things that coincide with my college education as well as my goals. I have been able to create various press releases, social media posts, a narrative of my internship and this blog here. I have been able to grasp an understanding of office procedures that will benefit me through my next steps in life. In my work at the Y, room for creativity has never been limited.
Empowering creativity allows for new horizons to be viewed and the grays of a mundane life to be saturated with color. I thank the YMCA of the Pines for never placing a limit on the creativity and fluorescent imaginations of their employees and campers. Whether it’s finding a way to console a hysterical child or designing a press release for one of our family camp weekends, ingenuity finds a home in all walks of work at the YMCA of the Pines.
As my internship comes to end and I leave my YMCA of the Pines chapter to pursue my college degrees, I am extremely grateful for all of the opportunities provided to me. I have been granted skills that will help me in all phases of life, whether it’s my career or someday children of my own, I will forever be enlightened by the Y.
[1] Note, this blog was written by Betsy during the summer of 2022.
