Taking some time to chat with Santa

By Mena Hansinger

Thursday, December 25, 2008 11:27 PM EST

I met Santa Claus at Bass Pro Shops last week. He was getting ready to greet all the children but first we had a nice little conversation.
Santa used to be an elf when he worked at Mattel Toys in Massachusetts but then he moved up to the North Pole after his retirement.

The reason I am telling this story is because Santa's wife just recently retired as the director of finance at the Springfield, Mass. YMCA, which is where our new CEO, Kurt Kramer, began his YMCA career. Hopefully, Santa will stop by the YMCA to say hello to Kurt and all of us although he is very busy right now.

It just proves to me that the YMCA is far reaching (all the way to the North Pole!) and has a connection to just about everyone. If you want your children to say hello to Santa, be sure and go to see him because he truly evokes the spirit of Christmas.

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As we approach Christmas and think of giving, don't forget that you can give a wonderful gift by donating blood at the Auburn YMCA-WEIU blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 26.

You can sign up at our membership desk or you can just drop in on Dec. 26 to donate. For everyone who donates, they will receive a free long sleeve T-shirt. There will also be refreshments and treats for everyone.

Do your part by donating blood. And if blood donation is not your thing, we have the giving tree set up in our lobby with gift tags for many children in the area.

The Salvation Army will be distributing these gifts for us. It is interesting to see how all of the members give back to the community by being a part of all the events that we sponsor here at the YMCA. That is part of what makes the Auburn YMCA so unique is our willingness to reach out to all members in the community. We all have a part to share in supporting the many people in our community.

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This is the last week of our fall session and there a couple of programs that are winding down.

Congratulations to Tom Marks for being the winner in the Use It and Lose It Program. Tom lost 46 pounds and was here almost daily in his quest to lose weight.

He will receive a $100 gift certificate from Dick's Sporting Goods for his efforts.

We are also starting up Dashing All the Weight this week with 12 participants taking part in the program, which runs through the holidays.

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Athletic power training will be finishing up today with eight kids working hard to get themselves in better shape. Last week, I had the pleasure of working with Carley, Danielle, Gabrielle, Michael, Conor, Grace, Sydney and Christina while Steve Komanecky was out of town.

Every one of these student-athletes worked hard to improve themselves with a variety of different workouts.

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As you count down the days until Christmas, don't forget to consider gift certificates to the Auburn YMCA for memberships or programs. Anyone would love to get them!

Hansinger is the assistant fitness director at the Auburn YMCA

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