ATHOL – After a lengthy search, the board of directors of the Athol Area YMCA has chosen Seth Kelly to be the organization’s next chief executive officer.

Kelly will officially take the reins from interim CEO Jim Scherer on Aug. 17.

A release announcing Kelly’s appointment states his background includes “education, youth development, community-based programming and local conservation work.”

Regarding his priorities as new CEO, Kelly said, “The YMCA in Athol is so important to the community. It’s not an ‘extra thing,’ it’s one of the community’s major pieces. I think my top priority is simply helping it reach its potential. What can the Y do to help fill gaps in the community?”

Kelly said much of the work that needs to be done at the YMCA building “is all ‘behind the scenes’ kind of stuff; catching up with deferred maintenance. There are things that don’t need to be done today, but once we get them done it’s going to save us money in the future.

“Once we move past that, once we can demonstrate we are fulfilling the potential and expectations of the community, I don’t think it will be hard for people to want to help us with a bigger capital campaign,” he added.

Kelly’s other priorities, according to the release, “will include supporting staff, listening to members and community partners, growing membership, improving operating systems, and building the financial and philanthropic support needed for the organization’s future.”

Scherer said Kelly “is the real deal. He’s a pro. He has all the skill sets to take this YMCA where it needs to go; where this community and where our clients deserve to go….We’ve gone from a crisis mode to a culture of ‘what if? What else can we do now for the community?’”

A 1994 graduate of Athol High School, Kelly has held administrative positions with nonprofits in Colorado and Alaska and has taught in Nicaragua.

“It hit a point where my son was going to go to school at Hampshire College (in Northampton),” he said. “We were in Nicaragua at the time and said, ‘This might be the time to move back to the United States. Moving back here, my fingers were crossed that something like that (the YMCA) would open up.”

Since returning to Athol three years ago, Kelly taught at Athol Royalston Middle School for a year before taking the position of community conservation program manager with the Mount Grace Land Trust and working as grants administrator for the YMCA.

While Kelly went to St. Bonaventure University in New York to become a journalist, his path led him instead in the world of nonprofits.

“I like working with people and I like being involved in the community and really seeing the different changes, positive changes, that can be made in a community,” he said. “I’m not someone who sits back and complains.”