ATHOL — She may have left her job as Executive Director of the Athol Area YMCA, but Jeanette Robichaud is not ending her association with the organization.
After 11 years of being the face of the Athol YMCA doing a job she “loved,” Robichaud worked her last day Friday to help Jennifer Gordon transition into her new position as Executive Director.
Robichaud said she will continue to serve on the YMCA’s Camp Wiyaka Centennial Committee and will be available for any help the new director may need. She also intends to keep her membership.
In 1985, Robichaud, a native of Lunenburg, started what would become an extensive career with the YMCA. She attended Bridgewater State College where she received a degree in Physical Education Exercise Physiology. She wanted to work in fitness but in the late 1980s there were few women’s fitness programs. She landed her first job at the Old Colony YMCA in Brockton. From 1986-1989 she worked as the Athol YMCA’s Youth & Aquatic Director. “The first job here really gave me a taste of how great the organization was to work for,” she said. “Joe Hawkins (former long-time director) really taught me a lot.”
Robichaud returned to Old Colony YMCA, and then became branch director for the Middleboro YMCA, and then Associate Executive Director of the Greendale branch of the Worcester YMCA, a CEO at a New Hampshire YMCA, and then returned to the Greendale YMCA as Director before coming to the Athol Area YMCA in January 2008.
Under her leadership, the Athol YMCA has undergone a number of improvements and added new programs, but it’s the YMCA staff and supporters that she credits. “The staff works so hard to make it a great place for people and to help people. We have people come here for some different reason but when they leave hopefully they’re a little bit happier and healthier.”
In the last 10 years new programs have been developed, including LIVESTRONG for cancer survivors, a diabetes prevention program, and a 21st Century Community Learning Center partnership with the school district which provides academically supportive afterschool programs.
“We’ve done a lot of capital improvements and will try to do some major projects every few years,” she said. “They’ve done a lot with handicapped access, creating a wellness studio and expansion of the youth activity room.”
The Athol Area YMCA recently received a $150,000 grant from the George Alden Trust for capital projects that will happen in August, including a complete lobby renovation.
“I think that this community really does support this YMCA. We need this support to do what we do,” she said.
The current membership is 2,100 and “we have probably 4,000 people come in annually who don’t take out memberships,” including those who use the facilities for birthday parties, Council on Aging fitness programs and Project Purple, an initiative to help students stand up against substance abuse. “They’re great,” she said of the kids who have participated in Project Purple Night. “They’re respectful and have a good time, and appreciate that it’s open to them.”
Some of the things that will really stand out in her mind are the children who would stand in the lobby and give “Miss Jeanette” a hug, or ask funny questions.
“It’s the people that really make the work here so special, whether that’s our staff or the volunteers and the kids,” she said.
Jeanette and her husband Mark Robichaud, who reside in Athol, are the parents of Lennon who will be graduating from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in May. Their son has accepted an architectural position in Washington, D.C.
She hopes to take “as much summer off as possible” and will be looking for things to do in the fall. She also wants to stay connected to the community, “doing something that makes a difference.”
Jeanette Robichaud has already made a difference in the eyes of the North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce board of directors. At the annual chamber dinner on May 23 she will be awarded Citizen of the Year.