From the January 16, 1986 edition of The Salem Times-Register
Salem YWCA employees celebrated the opening of their new center on Lynchburg Turnpike Sunday, but more importantly, they celebrated 25 years of service to women and to the entire Salem community.
During its 25 years of service, the Salem YWCA has grown up. What once was a small, social organization offering needlework and art courses, has now become a full-fledged organization adept at addressing all facets of a woman’s needs.
YWCA members are offered classes in health, fitness, creative arts and self-discovery. In addition, women may serve on the board of directors and take important positions on committees which plot the future of the 600-member organization.
Since more Salem women are now working and have limited hours to spend with their families, the YWCA has become more family-oriented, offering expanded classes for children and men. The Salem YWCA has also grown to meet the varying needs of racial and religious groups and to address the needs of the handicapped and elderly.
It was in 1959 that the dreams for the Salem YWCA were first planted. Even then, the long-range goal was to develop the facility into a unique organization for women and their families.
Mrs. C.R. Scales first mentioned a Salem YWCA in November 1959 when talking to the president of the YWCA Board of Directors in Roanoke. Her portion of the editorial read: “Another evidence of the fact that Salem has attained city status despite its continued ‘town’ designation is the current effort to organize an active branch of the YWCA.”
By the end of April 1961, the Salem YWCA had grown to 309 members, including men, women, and children. The 300 goal for the year had been met in just seven months.
That spring the YWCA expanded program offerings to include intermediate ballroom dancing, decorating, golf, rhythmic exercises, swimming at Roanoke College and tennis. A YWCA Day Camp for boys and girls was held July 17 at Wiley House. Twenty-four children attended.
That spring as the 300-membership goal was met, the Salem YWCA officially became an active branch. “It has been accomplished by young women and older leaders with visions for need, faith in good work, determination, effort, confidence and wisdom regarding the true values of what the YWCA means in the lives of the family and community,” said Mrs. Cecil Williams, executive director of the Roanoke YWCA.
The year 1962 brought many changes for the infant YWCA, including the employment of Mrs. Elenor M. Zatta as the first program director, the move of the organization into its first permanent center and the launching of a kindergarten program.
In February 1962, the YWCA moved its scarce belongings into the 12 Union Street building, formerly occupied by North Cross School. The YWCA leased 10 rooms in the building and scheduled classes in bridge and oil painting. Without funds, the members of the YWCA used newspaper articles to request donations of chairs, sofas, lamps, tables and rugs. In the meantime, members brought their own card tables to bridge classes.
Also, in 1962, membership climbed to near 500 and the kindergarten enrolled its first 16 children.
As the Salem YWCA progressed, community praise ran high. The Roanoke newspaper gave their support in the following editorial which ran in 1963.
“The Salem YWCA performs valuable services its youth work, always seeking to provide healthful activities for those who need it. Young married women find classes there a welcome break in the daily routine. Teenagers have a central place to meet, to dance, to have refreshments. Older men and women have found solace in companionship and creative outlets in art and musical programs. Here is an agency which is really trying to do something about the many social problems which confront us.”
As the country moved into the new era of the mid-to-late 1960s and confronted the social upheaval of the women’s movement and the drug and sex revolution, the Salem YWCA changed to meet the needs of its liberated women.
In 1965, the YWCA began offering judo and karate; in 1966, a course entitled, “Love and Sex Morality” for teenage girls and in 1969, a program on drugs for Y-teens and their mothers.
Mechanics and “calorie counters” replaced classes in needlework and ballroom dancing.
In the 1970s, as many women began entering the workforce for the first time, the Salem YWCA expanded its kindergarten and nursery school and began a preschool kindergarten on a half day schedule for four- and five-year-olds.
In the early 1970s, membership reached its peak, averaging between 2,000 and 3,000 with programs in kindergarten, nursery, classes, fitness and dance. However, in March 1972, the Salem YWCA discontinued its kindergarten since the Roanoke County School system announced plans to begin a kindergarten in the fall. It was replaced by an after-school program for students to meet the needs of women who now worked 9-5.
The year 1977 was important for the Salem Center as it moved into a new building at 507 West Main Street. The YWCA moved into the 24-room house in October, spending about $88,000 for the property and about $72,000 on improvements and construction of a multipurpose building for tennis, basketball and volleyball. A plastic “built in” swimming pool was installed in the yard at the new location as a temporary pool until the money became available for a permanent junior size Olympic pool. When the YWCA moved to the new location, membership had dropped to about 1,000 members.
The late 1970s proved to be a slow time for the Salem YWCA and for other YWCAs throughout the country. Membership at the Salem Center continued to drop as the 1970s gave way to the 80s and health spas became the ‘in thing’ for young and old alike.
The Salem Center never raised the funds for their dream pool, but began concentrating on the problems inflicted by the health craze. They began changing program offerings to include more aerobics and health-oriented classes.
The Salem YWCA has met the challenges of the 1980s and has moved and grown to meet the needs of its changing women. The move to the new center on Lynchburg Turnpike from 507 West Main is seen as a fresh start for the 25-year-old organization, an organization which has become wiser and more in tune to the changing needs of the Salem Community.
“Women are still our primary concern but women are not isolated in the world so we are also concerned about the needs of children and the family,” said Debbie Eller, area program coordinator. Women want to do things with their family and we have geared more programs toward the family.”
Eller also stressed the expansion of the YWCA program to meet the needs of the elderly, the handicapped and the mixture of racial groups that use the Salem Center. The addition of a pool to the membership offering is also new for the Salem YWCA.
The center has enveloped many of the successful features of a health spa, but its officials say they are more than an athletic club. “In fact, we are not an athletic club.”
To its advantages, the Salem Center offers low prices, emphasis on quality and safety and a push to meet the needs of everybody, no matter what their age, race or religion.
-Prepared by Shelly Koon
