Leading On the Trail and Beyond: YMCA Teen Honored for Responsibility

At the YMCA, our values of Caring, Honesty, Respect, Responsibility, and Passion for Excellence guide everything we do. Each year, we recognize young leaders who bring these values to life in meaningful ways. This year, we are proud to celebrate Sal, recipient of the Responsibility award, for the leadership and accountability they demonstrated as a leader in training with our Bold & Gold outdoor leadership program.

Through outdoor adventure, teamwork, and challenge, Bold & Gold calls young leaders to step up for themselves and for others. Sal consistently did just that—showing up prepared, supporting their peers, and taking ownership of their role on and off the trail. Sal's commitment, maturity, and steady presence made a lasting impact on the group and our Y community. Here's what Sal shared at the value awards:

My name is Sal and I’ve been attending BOLD & GOLD for 7 summers. This year, I was an leader in training on Call to The Coast trip. For that, I’ve received the Y Value Award for Responsibility.

I have a tradition on my BOLD & GOLD trips. From that last moment in the Cascade People’s Center where we start, to washing my hands in the Dominos bathroom at the end of the trip, I don’t look at my reflection. Not in clear water, or the bus mirror, or even on the group camera. For a week, I refuse to know what I look like. It’s a game, of a sort, to see how I’ve changed. The constellations of bug bites, bags under my eyes, mud on my cheeks.

I like seeing who I’ve become.

Responsibility is what turns me into a new person with every week spent in the back country. It’s the sleepless nights under the stars, reassuring another participant that everything’s going to be alright. It’s the extra bug net in my bag because I just know someone will lose theirs. It’s the showtunes on the trail to keep the mood up, and the restraint it takes to hold back because we’ve sung through all of Hamilton twenty times already.

More than that, it’s staying up until three in the morning to make sure everything is in order for the next day. It’s the days of paperwork, of packing, the duct-tape starfish packed with sour patch kids. It’s the calm reassurance in the face of unprecedented circumstances.

 Responsibility is the Y’s incredible counselors. Olivia, Mitchell, Ed, Carina, Kat, Kaelan, Hanna, and so many more. You showed me what it means to be a leader.

Responsibility is the me I used to be, and the me I am now, and the miles between them. It’s finally climbing to the top of the mountain over Lake Chelan and deciding to rediscover myself, instead of mourning the me I was.

It’s getting to look in the eyes of the kid I used to be, and finally respond to all those letters to myself I wrote over the years.

You’re going to be okay.

Now drink some water. I know you’re dehydrated.

Written by Sal - pictured in pink shirt

Learn more about BOLD & GOLD programs >>