YMCA Strong Community – Champion Social
Posted on May 15, 2016 by Ching under Events.
Since I doubled my pledge to the YMCA (pretty much giving up all of my paychecks this year), Brian and I were invited to our first YMCA Strong Community Campaign Champion Social. The social is basically an event to thank and recognize the donors and supporters of Greater Wichita YMCA. We’ve never been invited before so I’m think you have to donate at least $1,000 to get on the guest list.
That’s kind of a nice, unexpected perk. When I committed to pretty much not earning any money from my Zumba side-gig at the Y this year, I didn’t know I was going to be invited to a cool social. I just figured I was helping to make YMCA programs available to those in the community who might not otherwise be able to afford it.
Brian wasn’t exactly thrilled when I told him last year about the level of commitment I made for this year. Even though he’s not putting my YMCA paychecks in our checkbook register, we’ve been counting on it as a source of “magic” money. It’s “magic” in the sense that when your checkbook register balance dips below zero, you’re not really overdrawn because your “magic” money has you covered. Then periodically, like every three months or so, he rebalances everything and moves a portion of the “magic” money to our savings account.
Because I doubled my commitment from last year, there’s pretty much nothing left of my YMCA paycheck which means little to no “magic” money coming from that source. We wouldn’t have felt it if I was still teaching seven classes a week but I dropped to just teaching on Saturdays and Sundays almost two years ago so I could be more involved at work and not have to worry about looking for subs when I have to be out of town. That was a decision I made, which I still stand behind, because it makes sense for me professionally. There’s no way I could be part of the current project I’m on at work and still teach all of those Zumba classes during the week. Anyway, I am adding two more classes each week this summer (Aqua Zumba outside in the waterpark) so I can at least contribute to the “magic” money fund for a couple of months. That should pacify Brian until I drop back down to just two classes a week again in the fall.
The whole “magic” money thing helps us out but I’m not too bummed about not having it. We weren’t really counting on it so I feel like we’re actually putting the funds to better use by helping others in the community and that, I think, is magical.
The social was actually great. I’m not sure why Brian has this look on his face. LOL. I guess this is the same look Brian gives me whenever I ask for his approval to donate money to various causes.
My YMCA paychecks may be my money but Brian and I are partners so we always make decisions together. This approach works really well for us and we actually end up making better decisions, for the most part. There was that one time that we were a bit impulsive and ended up buying a puppy from a live auction so it’s not completely fool proof. At least we decided on it together so we can’t point fingers.
The best part of attending the social was running into my former coworker Cody and his wife Lacey. I haven’t seen Cody in ages. We used to run into each other a lot at leadership conferences and other work meetings but I hadn’t seen him since he left the company last year. It was a nice surprise running into the two of them. He is one of those easy going, cheerful people who’s fun to be around. I really miss seeing him at work.
Anyway, I have the champion social to thank for this chance encounter. If we don’t see each other at all this year, at least I’ll have the champion social to look forward to next year. Hey, maybe I’ll even see you all there.
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