There are as many reasons why people get involved with the Bath Area Family YMCA as there are members. For Jim Drake, a member of the Y’s board of directors, it was the scholarship part of the Y’s mission that caught his attention.

“I thought of working single parents,” he said. “If they can’t afford childcare and you turn them away, where do they go? We have to be able to help. Here at the Y, no one is turned away. No one.”

The month of May kicks off the Y’s Annual Campaign, a yearly effort to raise money to support financial aid and scholarships. Although it may not be obvious, the Y is a charity. Such programs as the financial aid services are funded mainly by taxdeductible contributions. What makes the Y unique is that no one is turned away because of their inability to pay. This year the goal is $170,000. Every gift, no matter what size, brings the Y closer to the goal. Some facts: l Financial aid insures that no one is turned away because of an inability to pay. l Of the nearly 10,000 people who used the Y facility and programs last year, 1,500 of them were helped by the Y’s financial aid. l More than 25 percent of the children enrolled in the Y’s childcare program are on scholarships.

Kelly Howard discovered the Y shortly after she and her family moved to Brunswick from New Hampshire. She brought her children to swimming classes at the old facility on Summer Street.

“The pool area was something else,” Howard recalled recently. “But sitting with the other parents in that hot, stuffy basement, it had a bonding effect and those parents became my good friends to this day.”

Today Howard is director of the childcare services, where every day she sees the results of the Annual Campaign.

“About 26 percent of the childcare participants are helped by scholarship funds,” she said. “It’s very important to the success of the program.”

Almost as important as the money raised is the role the Annual Campaign plays in the community at large. The fund raising process helps the Y staff and volunteers interact with the community by talking and listening. “Friendship” and “community” are terms you hear often when people talk about their relationship with the Bath Area Family YMCA. It is so much more than a health club or a fitness center.

Erica Losier discovered that sometimes the smallest step leads to a life-changing opportunity. She was a stayat home mom with a limited income when she sought to send her son to preschool at the Y, but couldn’t afford the fees.

“The scholarship made the difference,” she said.

Right away she met other parents who became, and still are, friends. In other words, the scholarship became her key to participating in the local community.

“Having the preschool available allowed me to use the fitness room and the track for my own routine and eventually led to a part time job as instructor in the ‘LiveSTRONG at the Y program,’” Losier said. “It’s amazing.”

For more information on the Annual Campaign, contact the Y at (207) 443-4112.