My Nonprofit Reviews

From: Steven Cohn -- White Plains, N.Y.

I have volunteered for Westchester Jewish Community Services since September 2018, and the association has been mutually beneficial. My most significant assignment through WJCS was compiling a historical timeline for the White Plains, N.Y., YMCA. The purpose was to chronicle an organization about to make a major change, as its 90-year-old facility on 250 Mamaroneck Avenue was being sold to a realtor.
In late-2018 and early-2019, I went through boxes of archives at the White Plains Y, as none of the data had been digitized. Through newspaper clippings, newsletters, photographs and material from the national YMCA, I uncovered the successes and challenges, along with the mostly beneficial impact on the community.
But not totally beneficial, because during the 1950s there was a separate White Plains Y on Fisher Avenue that served the African-American community. The Fisher Avenue Y was "unequal" because it did not have a swimming pool, and members could only use the pool at the Mamaroneck Avenue Y at specified times when presumably the white members were not using it. That "segregation" would end in 1961.
Although much of my volunteer work at WJCS is currently on hold because of the impact from COVID-19 (I do write periodically for the White Plains Library), I have enjoyed the get-togethers with Jodi Maxner and the other participants in the program.
My volunteering for WJCS has been a learning experience that I cherish. So, too, has been the camaraderie.