IMPACT STORY SEPTEMBER 2019

Making Memories: A Second Home

“The YMCA is like a second home to me,” says Ed Elum, member of the Massillon Family YMCA for over 60 years. “I’ve done a large part of my life within these walls.” Ed has grown up in the YMCA with swim lessons, sports, physical fitness, and even coaching. Now, Ed visits the Y nearly every morning to swim before going to work at the Massillon Municipal Court. Describing his time in the pool as a way to think through everything, he manages to stay in great mental and physical shape, using swimming as his way to relieve stress and negativity. 
He states, “You exercise for a lot of reasons, but really it’s the friends you have here. I think of all the memories I have – all of the friends.” Ed urges us to make the necessary changes to get involved in the bettering of our lives through physical fitness, mental awareness, outreach to family, and doing the best we can every single day. As his brother, George Elum, claims, “It’s never the place. It’s always the people.”

Proverbs 27:9
A sweet friendship refreshes the soul