Fitchburg’s Montachusett Community Branch YMCA offers swim lessons and more
“Learning to swim gives one confidence and I believe that confidence spills over into other areas of life,
said Montachusett Y Aquatics Director Lillie Skerry. “I see it all the time.”
Lizz Gordon-Hughes has been teaching swim lessons in the Montachusett Y heated indoor pool since the fall of 2020 and brings waterfront director experience with her. As of now, her schedule includes three group classes for kids on Saturdays.
“I like working with kids in general,” the mom of three said, “helping them getting over that anxiety of being in the water and seeing them progress.”
One energetic group of youngsters she teaches includes 8-year-old Samantha Lee of Fitchburg, who before September had never swam before. Nowadays Lee and other swim students move around the water like fish, learning how to float, go under water and paddle, gaining confidence and learning about water safety under Gordon-Hughes’s tutelage.
“It just feels good,” Samantha said of swimming. 
Gordon-Hughes is one of 11 aquatic staff members at the Montachusett Y, including seven lifeguards on the pool schedule, plus two subs. Two of the lifeguards are also swim instructors and they have a substitute swim teacher as well. Skerry said there are about 70 staff members total at the Montachusett Y branch and over 500 employees at the six YMCA of Central Massachsuetts branches, including Fitchburg and Leominster.
Skerry started working for the Y in 2007 and has had many roles in the organization, including lifeguard, swim instructor, and teaching water aerobics classes. She became the aquatics coordinator for both the Montachusett and Central Community Branch in downtown Worcester in 2014 and later that same year was promoted to aquatics director. She is now the director just at Montachusett.
“I miss the people at CCB, but I do not miss the drive,” Skerry said.
Like so many other businesses and organizations, the Montachusett Y has certainly felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The YMCA of Central Massachusetts closed its branches to members in March 2020 and reopened in July of that same year. Skerry said their hours “are still limited at this time,” weekends from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“We look forward to the days when we can also remain open 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays, but we do not yet know when that will be,” she said.
Throughout the pandemic, the Montachusett Y and other branches have offered free day care for essential workers and Skerry said when remote learning kicked off, they had classrooms of children sorted by grade from different schools in the area “each doing their own Zoom classes.”
“During our shutdown, we made phone calls to our senior citizen members to see how they were doing, well-being checkups, and we delivered hundreds of thousands of meals to families,” Skerry said. “From April 2020 to August 2021, the Y association delivered over 1.6 million meals to families in need.”
YMCA of Central MA Executive Director Ted McDonnell said the organization “is an inclusive environment open to people of all ages” and that it is important to them to provide a space for people of all ages to gather and be active through their programs and classes including swim, yoga, teen centers, open gym and Silver Sneakers for seniors.
“With a mission centered on balance, the Y brings families closer together, encourages good health, and fosters connections through fitness, sports, fun and shared interests,” he said. “As a result, thousands of youth, adults, and families from central Massachusetts are receiving the support, guidance, and resources needed to achieve health and well-being for their spirit, mind, and body.”
One of those resources are the popular year-round group swim lessons Montachusett offers to the public, including parent-child sessions, with 45 students currently taking weekly lessons and a few on a waiting list. There are seven swim sessions per year with a short break between sessions. Skerry said most students attend more than one swim session.
“It is our hope that once we are open longer hours, we will also have swim teachers available in the afternoon so that we can add some more classes to the schedule,” she said.
In addition, the Y also offers private swim lessons if there is a swim instructor whose availability matches the student’s availability and family swim on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
“I enjoy seeing people of all ages learn to swim,” Skerry said. “Also, there is just something soothing about being in the water. People always say they feel better after a swim, like the water just washed away all of their worries. And it is great to see families, grandparents, parents and children all having good clean fun in the pool.”
She said there are still some colleges and universities in the U.S. that require students to pass a basic swim test to graduate, including Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Notre Dame.
“Learning to swim is a life lesson,” she said.
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