Workout with Bob Day is coming up on Friday, August 11. With so many new YMCA members and staff, we asked Bob to give us a refresher about why we celebrate this day. Here’s what he had to say:
How did the Work Out At All the Branches day start in the first place?
It was 2010 — and I was thinking about how much growth and expansion the YMCA of Austin had achieved since I first joined the Metro Board in 1989.
I thought it might be fun to spend one full day going to each center of the Association.
I took a day off of work near my birthday in August — and drove to each of the centers and did a brief workout.
It was fun. It was really cool to see all of the branches in one day– the members, the staff, the kids. It was One Day in the Life of the YMCA of Austin.
So the next year — right around my birthday — I did the same thing. Afterwards I told one of the Metro staffers, Jim Pacey, about my tour and he said. “Well….I’ll go with you next year, “ which he did.
The year after that it grew to four of us. Three staff and me.
By year Five this had become “a thing” and a van was rented to take a group of six of us on the Work Out tour of branches.
It kept growing to the point where some folks – board and staff – did all the branches in a van, and others came and joined in at various locations throughout the day.
The pandemic unfortunately ended this annual event for two years, but now here we are again in 2023 and WOAATB Day returns!
Come join us.
It is awesome!
Bob Digneo
