Published: April 18, 2008 03:48 pm            

Growth of Enid YMCA mirrors long-time employee

The YMCA has been the vehicle to much personal success in executive director Ken Rapp’s life.

He landed his first job after college at the Y. He again found work there after the oil bust. He met his wife there. He also became a “true” believer in Christ there.

Now, he watches his children play games and shoot baskets as he ends his workdays there.

That may be the evolution of the organization Rapp will be most proud to pass along when the time comes.

“I’ve seen it evolve into truly a family organization,” Rapp said.

“I love … when I’m on a treadmill and I can see the door and coming in is mom, dad, kids – all coming in as a family.”

He said over the years, the Denny Price Family YMCA has brought community, family and God together in his life and in the lives of others.

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Rapp has seen “tremendous growth” over the last 28 years he’s worked at the Enid YMCA. He’s been through phases and fads in programming, membership and equipment, though one thing has remained the same – the Denny Price Family YMCA still provides what it was originally aiming to give the community all those years ago — a safe place for the community to gather for fellowship, fun and keeping fit.

Rapp said he is particularly proud that the YMCA isn’t just a Christian association in name any longer. After the death of Denny Price, a long-time community leader and YMCA supporter, and with the help of Price’s family, the Christian in YMCA became an emphasis in everyday practice.

“We realized more than ever we are a Christian organization,” Rapp said. “Here we have really put it into practice.”

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When Rapp started as the aquatics director fresh out of college in 1975, the Enid YMCA boasted about 2,000 members. At last year’s count, membership was about 7,700 and still growing.

Rapp said the YMCA brings people together from many different social and economic groups. It provides a place for those groups to come together in unity.

“This is a YMCA community,” Rapp said.

In the 1970s, Rapp said the main clients of the YMCA were white business men, but those demographics have changed with the times. The YMCA now boasts many nationalities and races. There are more family memberships than any other kind and Rapp said the best part of his job is seeing families walk through the doors together or play games and exercise as a family.

“I’ve seen dramatic changes in who we serve,” Rapp said.

Today, programs have expanded and the needs of the community were fulfilled to include something for everyone in the family, he said.

“We’ve got a nursery for babies and toddlers,” Rapp said. “That opened up opportunities for women.”

The YMCA also offers all-day childcare and after-school care for children. That opened up opportunities for both children and parents.

Today, more than 1,000 teens are members at the Enid YMCA.

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The years have brought not only a different membership base to the YMCA, but a whole new set of exercises, equipment and fitness strategies.

Rapp said exercising nearly 30 years ago consisted of group calisthenics – running, push ups, sit ups. In the 1980s, the trend changed when music was added to mix. Classes of aerobic exercises were being offered.

“That gave way to many different exercises,” Rapp said. “We’ve seen that evolution.”

Now, there’s spinning classes, step aerobic classes and choreographed exercises with barbells and inflatables.

Rapp remembers running become “fashionable” in the 1970s, with star tracksters like Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter highlighting the sport.

There were no treadmills in the 1970s and even when they became available, they were powered by the user. They didn’t attach to high-tech devices that gave the target heart rate of its user or the latest scores from ESPN or the latest weather outlook either.

Today, Y members get on all different types of motorized equipment – bikes, cross trainers, elliptical trainers.

“They’ve become more and more technology based,” Rapp said. “We’ve seen a lot of technology changes.”

The introduction of personal trainers – someone to help keep members accountable – became big in the last decade.

Other physical changes besides the addition of equipment also have been evident over the last quarter-century. The YMCA has grown from a 35,000 square-foot facility to 60,000 square feet. A new building addition will provide about 75,000 total square feet of space at the YMCA.

“Now we are serving the whole family and our facilities are able to provide for the whole family.”

The staff also has increased to fill the needs the expanded facility and membership has provided. What once was two or three full-time salaried staff with a few part-timers is now several salaried workers, several full-time employees and “a huge number of part-time staff,” Rapp said.

The reason, Rapp said, the YMCA has been able to adapt to all the changes is because of the volunteer leaders who make up the board of directors and committees.

“That’s how we embrace change,” Rapp said.

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Rapp moved to Enid from the hills of Missouri and began working at the YMCA in 1975. He continued as the aquatics director for five years where his favorite part of the job was teaching youngsters how to swim.

He was soon to move up, however. He was sports and fitness director from 1980 until 1985, when he left to seek his fortune in the oil boom. While working for oil companies, Rapp continued to serve the YMCA as a board member.

After the oil bust, Rapp decided he might need a change. The executive director’s position came open and Rapp came back to the place where he’d experienced the first of all his major life changes.

“It was here I truly became a Christian. A young pastor shared the Gospel with me. He led me to a new relationship with God through Christ,” Rapp said.

And it’s where he found that northwest Oklahoma wasn’t just flat plains and oil wells.

“It turned out to be a great place to raise a family,” Rapp said.