Auburn's YMCA helped win World War II. A little, anyway.
In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt had a problem.
Facing war with Hitler's Germans and the imperial Japanese before Pearl Harbor, Americans suddenly began to draft young men into the Army and Navy, posting them for training around the United States.
Some 1.5 million men were stationed in “hastily erected camps,” as one official put it, near hundreds of small communities, including Watertown. Some camps held 40,000 men, larger than nearby communities.
Roosevelt actually had two problems: soldiers and defense workers who needed something to do off duty and communities that couldn't accommodate them. Watertown police officers, for instance, were under orders to treat off-duty soldiers from nearby Pine Camp as vagrants and shove them along.
Government leaders figured civilians could handle this best. Roosevelt asked the five non-profit recreational agencies most active during World War I - the YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army, national Catholic and Jewish welfare agencies, plus the Travelers Aid Association - to form a single focused service.
They called it the United Service Organizations for National Defense, later just the United Service Organization - or the USO.
The plan was to build 220 USO “huts” next to U.S. bases. Hardly huts, many of them would be more than 12,000 square feet, all built by the government and run by the USO.
There would be a main lounge, shower and locker room, study, reading room, soda fountain and social hall with stage.
It would include dances, games, reading areas, singing, dramatics and counselors. Young volunteer women, mostly, would cook, clean, chat, dance and hand out coffee and doughnuts. They didn't even object to being called “Donut Dollies.”
In a national broadcast in early 1941, Roosevelt challenged Americans to raise nearly $10.8 million within weeks to staff and equip the USO facilities. Cayuga County responded way above expectations.
In April 1941, Dr. Frank. W. Moore, the Auburn YMCA's vice president, participated in a conference in Washington to consider USO plans.
The local Y's board president, Charles L. Stryker, and a leading Catholic layman, Frank J. Lesch, became the local USO leaders.
A Jewish synagogue elder, Charles Goldman, became campaign director for Auburn.
A Weedsport man, George Cusick, led the campaign for the rest of the county.
Two hundred volunteers here raised about $11,000, some $4,000 more than goal. The USO's national goal was $10.8 million. The USO raised $33 million during the war.
Everybody it seemed got involved. At 8:30 p.m. June 29, for instance (a late 11:30 p.m. in Auburn), 55 star entertainers, including Clark Gable, Mary Pickford, Jeanette MacDonald and Molly McGee, put on a lengthy show broadcast live on CBS from the Hollywood Bowl.
The YMCA, WEIU and other groups organized a dance in the decorated Y gym on Oct. 27, a Monday, to entertain 150 uniformed men from a medical battalion from Pine Camp.
One hundred local women attended (“Soldiers Agree Auburn Girls Pretty And Gay,” announced The Citizen-Advertiser's headline the next day).
The soldiers had to get up early the next day: they would depart their temporary Cayuga Lake State Park encampment for Fort Niagara at 5 a.m.
Nonetheless, their newsletter called the Auburn women “one of the nicest collections of hostesses we have ever seen anywhere.”
In early 1942, the executive secretary of the Watertown USO spoke at Auburn YMCA's annual dinner, telling his audience that there were already 530 USO units in 45 states employing 1,000 people.
By the end of the war, 7,000 performers donated their talent to USO “Camp Shows” big and small around the world.
The most famous USO entertainer was Bob Hope, who continued serving the USO from 1941 until Desert Shield in 1990. He died in 2003.
Meanwhile, the local YMCA on its own arranged Sunday suppers for visiting servicemen at the homes of families. U.S., Canadian and British servicemen got full Y privileges gratis, including postage stamps, stationery and a swim.
“Oh, boy,” one of them was quoted as saying in summer 1942, “what a find - a cool friend at the end of a hot, sultry day.”
David Connelly volunteers for the YMCA-WEIU 150th anniversary committee
Facing war with Hitler's Germans and the imperial Japanese before Pearl Harbor, Americans suddenly began to draft young men into the Army and Navy, posting them for training around the United States.
Some 1.5 million men were stationed in “hastily erected camps,” as one official put it, near hundreds of small communities, including Watertown. Some camps held 40,000 men, larger than nearby communities.
Roosevelt actually had two problems: soldiers and defense workers who needed something to do off duty and communities that couldn't accommodate them. Watertown police officers, for instance, were under orders to treat off-duty soldiers from nearby Pine Camp as vagrants and shove them along.
Government leaders figured civilians could handle this best. Roosevelt asked the five non-profit recreational agencies most active during World War I - the YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army, national Catholic and Jewish welfare agencies, plus the Travelers Aid Association - to form a single focused service.
They called it the United Service Organizations for National Defense, later just the United Service Organization - or the USO.
The plan was to build 220 USO “huts” next to U.S. bases. Hardly huts, many of them would be more than 12,000 square feet, all built by the government and run by the USO.
There would be a main lounge, shower and locker room, study, reading room, soda fountain and social hall with stage.
It would include dances, games, reading areas, singing, dramatics and counselors. Young volunteer women, mostly, would cook, clean, chat, dance and hand out coffee and doughnuts. They didn't even object to being called “Donut Dollies.”
In a national broadcast in early 1941, Roosevelt challenged Americans to raise nearly $10.8 million within weeks to staff and equip the USO facilities. Cayuga County responded way above expectations.
In April 1941, Dr. Frank. W. Moore, the Auburn YMCA's vice president, participated in a conference in Washington to consider USO plans.
The local Y's board president, Charles L. Stryker, and a leading Catholic layman, Frank J. Lesch, became the local USO leaders.
A Jewish synagogue elder, Charles Goldman, became campaign director for Auburn.
A Weedsport man, George Cusick, led the campaign for the rest of the county.
Two hundred volunteers here raised about $11,000, some $4,000 more than goal. The USO's national goal was $10.8 million. The USO raised $33 million during the war.
Everybody it seemed got involved. At 8:30 p.m. June 29, for instance (a late 11:30 p.m. in Auburn), 55 star entertainers, including Clark Gable, Mary Pickford, Jeanette MacDonald and Molly McGee, put on a lengthy show broadcast live on CBS from the Hollywood Bowl.
The YMCA, WEIU and other groups organized a dance in the decorated Y gym on Oct. 27, a Monday, to entertain 150 uniformed men from a medical battalion from Pine Camp.
One hundred local women attended (“Soldiers Agree Auburn Girls Pretty And Gay,” announced The Citizen-Advertiser's headline the next day).
The soldiers had to get up early the next day: they would depart their temporary Cayuga Lake State Park encampment for Fort Niagara at 5 a.m.
Nonetheless, their newsletter called the Auburn women “one of the nicest collections of hostesses we have ever seen anywhere.”
In early 1942, the executive secretary of the Watertown USO spoke at Auburn YMCA's annual dinner, telling his audience that there were already 530 USO units in 45 states employing 1,000 people.
By the end of the war, 7,000 performers donated their talent to USO “Camp Shows” big and small around the world.
The most famous USO entertainer was Bob Hope, who continued serving the USO from 1941 until Desert Shield in 1990. He died in 2003.
Meanwhile, the local YMCA on its own arranged Sunday suppers for visiting servicemen at the homes of families. U.S., Canadian and British servicemen got full Y privileges gratis, including postage stamps, stationery and a swim.
“Oh, boy,” one of them was quoted as saying in summer 1942, “what a find - a cool friend at the end of a hot, sultry day.”
David Connelly volunteers for the YMCA-WEIU 150th anniversary committee
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