The Cabot Street YMCA

Photo and Commentary by Julie Sharkey

The Cabot Street YMCA plays a larger role in our community than most people think. Not only does it strengthen the people within the community and bring them closer together but it teaches people skills and qualities they can take with them for the rest of their lives. Since 1911 when President Taft helped to lay the foundation of this building until today the YMCA has been providing a facility that is not just to get a work out or learn how to swim but a place where you can meet, trust and learn from others in the community. Today the building and the activities inside it rappresent the traditions from over a century ago but it also has the modern attributes that will contribute to the future of the YMCA. The Cabot street YMCA connects Beverly to the world and a much larger picture in two ways. First, the YMCA is a nationwide organization and the cabot street building represents one part of this whole wonderful organization that disseminates core values and morals to people around the country. The second way the Cabot Street YMCA is connected to the world is that the people who come out of the YMCA come out with morals and characteristics they cannot learn any place else and that they can carry on with them throughout their lives. Later on in life, maybe outside of Beverly, if people make accomplishments or use the skills they learned at the YMCA to help other than people will acknowledge the fact that the honored learned what they know from our YMCA. This YMCA serves Beverly as well connecting to and serving the rest of the country and other places in the world by the people that come out of it. The Cabot Street YMCA has places in the world by people that come out of it. The Cabot Street YMCA has impacts on the century in many ways and serves not just as a place to get fit and grow physically but a place to grow mentally and individually.