For the last month, Steve Komanecky and I have had the pleasure of having an intern, Courtney Helinski, from the BOCES New Vision Program, work in our office. I asked Courtney to write up a little something about her experience so that I could share it with everyone.

“As an Auburn High School senior and student of the BOCES New Visions Business and Media Communications program, I am given the opportunity to complete mini internships as part of the curriculum.

I choose to intern at the YMCA-WEIU because of my love for fitness and interest in the business aspect of a non profit agency. I was assigned to be in Mena and Steve's fitness office to learn about the programs and the hard work that goes into being a fitness director.

I took notes on the scheduling, budgeting, analyzing and organizing that I watched both Mena and Steve do constantly to make their fitness office run as smoothly as it does. Most importantly, they taught me to communicate with the public: both Mena and Steve demonstrated how to create a friendly, welcoming environment while keeping professionalism in mind.As I get ready to graduate and go off to college, I will bring the key concepts and ideas that I learned while interning at the YMCA. I thank Mena, Steve, Jim Courtney and Dorothea Hughes for allowing me this opportunity to learn and explore at the Auburn YMCA-WEIU.”

Thank you Courtney for all that you did for us while you were here. We enjoyed having you.

Last Saturday, we held the annual Terri Dautrich, Forever Young, Junior Racquetball Tournament. Terri was a long-time member who loved racquetball and took the time to help kids on the courts. This tournament is held in his memory and is a big family event every year. We had a record number of players, 33, from Auburn, Syracuse, Rochester, and Watertown. Ages ranged from 7 to 19 and the tournament was divided by skill levels.

In the platinum division, Jeff Hanno Jr. won first place. Second place was Tom Mastrodonato, third, Sammy Newport and fourth, Shawn Patterson. The gold division featured John Camardo in first, Shane Lawrence in second, Nick Camardo in third and Eric Chalupnicki in fourth. Silver Division winner was Chris Peters, Kara Hickey was second, Ryan Chalupnicki was third and Domini Mosley was fourth. In the Bronze Division, Madison Bannister placed first, followed by Maggie Flurschutz in second, Sam Vasile Jr. in third and Marki Flurschutz in fourth. Congratulations to all participants and winners.

Use It and Lose It ended with the first-place team being team No. 8, orange. The team members were Erin Krell, Kathy O'Rourke, Paula Gridley, Chris Ann Hunt and Bill Manchester. They had a combine total weight loss of 57 pounds. Bill Manchester also had the biggest weight loss with 24 lbs. The new session for this program began April 2 and we already have over 30 signed up for it. What a great way to get ready for summer!

Hansinger is the assistant fitness director at the YMCA