Features this Month:

• YMCA Quick-Fit Video: How to Do a Crunch
• National Family Week
• YMCA Mission in Action
• Healthy Recipe: Tex-Mex Rice and Bean Casserole
• Holidays at the Farmington YMCA

YMCA Quick-Fit Video: How to Do a Crunch

North Oakland YMCA's Jennifer Garner provides instruction on how to do a proper crunch in this Quick-Fit Video. She will show you ways to vary the difficulty and maintain correct posture, so you can maximize results.

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YMCA Mission in Action

Road to Recovery

Sometimes the road to recovery begins with a hot shower. When Hurricane Ike hit the Houston area in September, the YMCA of Greater Houston opened its facilities to the public for showers and to charge cell phones and computers—no membership needed. An estimated 2.8 million residents in the area were left without electricity after the Category 2 storm.

The area’s YMCAs also helped distribute 200,000 bags of ice donated by a local grocer. Despite severe damage to some of its own facilities, the Y was able to help hundreds of people in need as they began the process of recovering from the hurricane.

The Houston YMCA has had some practice in storm response, having provided shelter, services and activities to thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in 2007. “We’re part of this community” said the Houston YMCA’s Trazanna Moreno. “We offered similar help to Katrina evacuees, so of course we would respond when this happened in our own backyard. It’s a small thing, a shower, but it makes you feel human again.” The YMCA continued to reopen facilities as power was restored and is now fully operational at all of its 41 sites.

International

Ethiopia is in east-central Africa, bordered on the west by the Sudan, the east by Somalia and Djibouti, the south by Kenya and the northeast by Eritrea. It has several high mountains, the highest of which is Ras Dashan at 15,158 ft. Ethiopia is about the size of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico combined—472,000 square miles. The capital city is Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is home to 77 million people. The Oromo, Amhara and Tigreans make up more than three-fourths of the population, but there are more than 77 different ethnic groups with their own distinct languages within Ethiopia. In general, most Christians live in the highlands, while Muslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit lowland regions. Most of the Somali people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is taught in all secondary schools.

Ethiopia is credited with being the origin of mankind. Bones discovered in eastern Ethiopia date back 3.2 million years. Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world.

The YMCA of Ethiopia

The YMCA of Ethiopia was founded in 1951 in Addis Ababa. In the 1960s the YMCA of Ethiopia was the largest YMCA in Africa with 25 branches. However, in 1976 the YMCA was shut down by the Derg Regime and the communist revolution.

The YMCA of Ethiopia re-opened in 1992 with support from former Ethiopian YMCA leaders and members, the Africa Alliance of YMCAs and YMCA of the USA. The YMCA of Ethiopia has gradually expanded throughout the country over the past 15 years and has more than 10,000 members and nine local branches. It reaches more than 60,000 youth and families each year. Programming includes sports, recreation, character development, assistance for orphans and vulnerable children, primary education, civic education, services for street children and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Recently the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded a $500,000 grant to YMCA of the USA to combat HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. The YMCA AIDS Volunteerism and Community Engagement (ADVANCE) program will provide youth access to basic HIV prevention education and vital medical services to improve existing care and prevention programs in underserved communities in the cities of Addis Ababa and Adama. The YMCA will recruit and train hundreds of Ethiopian youths to become peer educators who will spread prevention and care information, work towards building a stronger sense of community and refer community members to health facilities.

To learn more about YMCA work around the world visit www.ymca.net/worldservice.

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Holidays at the Farmington YMCA

The holidays are right around the corner and are filled with family, friends and celebrations. These celebrations are a time to catch up with out-of-towners, laugh with close relatives, exchange gifts and give thanks for the year. As fun as the holidays can be, most of the time leading up to the celebrations are filled with one thing, stress. Party planning, gift shopping and making sure you bring the right dish are all things that can add to the stress of your already busy life. Plus, we all know nothing makes a celebration complete like a fantastic spread of delicious homemade food. The time to start watching our waistlines has begun!

Here at the Farmington Family YMCA we are dedicated to helping you keep the extra pounds off this holiday season and find fun healthy ways to release stress. Don't forget that our facility offers a variety of ways to keep you physically and mentally strong, and to avoid hitting a plateau or falling into a rut. Speak to one of our Wellness Staff and ask about new ways to keep your workouts fresh so you can take advantage of your YMCA. Each day you can:

• Use the wellness center with its state of the art cardio and strength equipment
• Take advantage of our fitlinxx workout tracking system
• Make friends and get motivated in one of many land and water aerobic classes
• Treat yourself and get set up with a qualified personal trainer
• Walk or run on our indoor track
• Swim some laps or take advantage of our therapeutic pool
• Grab a friend and jump in one of our four racquet ball courts

Happy Holidays!

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