Everyone with an October birthday raise your hands. If you are a member of the Y, whether your birthday is in October or not, raise your hands too! That’s right, it’s the YMCA’s 139th birthday in Fargo.
Let’s take ourselves back to 1886 and the Fargo/Moorhead area. A loaf of bread cost around $0.05, a dozen eggs around $0.25 and the same for a gallon of milk, and a steak cost around $0.15-$0.20. If you were getting dressed up to hit the town, your suit would have cost around $10. Another way to look at it, $1 in 1886 is valued today at $34.47. Those are big changes.
And, yet, the YMCA you know today is a lot like the YMCA you would have seen back then. As we have shared in the past, we are considered a railroad YMCA, following the building of the rail line from Chicago to Seattle. Today, we are looking at a new YMCA in the Bemidji area that will be built on repurposed railroad land. No small coincidence.
Back then, we helped young men in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s have a place to stay and call home as they got on their feet. We still hear stories today about someone’s grandfather or great-grandfather staying at our local YMCA as they moved to the area. Today, while we don’t have a residence anymore, we are still welcoming the community and helping to serve young families through our childcares, our food programs for children, and our partnership with Valley Senior Services as congregate meals sites at our branches.
The volunteers who helped start the YMCA in our area 139 years ago are much the same today: helping maintain the strength of the organization as we look at new ways to serve our community. The minutes of the early days’ organization’s board meetings tell us that back in 1886 there was only one staff person, the General Secretary or what we would call an Executive Director or CEO. Everyone else was a volunteer. When a program started at the Y, it was because of hard work of the volunteers. Today, we have a full staff of nearly 1,000 individuals and our volunteers total nearly 400 playing various roles in governance, being a basketball coach, helping with the Giving Tree, and helping us at our Burn the Bird Thanksgiving Day Run. While we are a strong staff, the real work of the Y is visible through the volunteers who serve our organization and community.
Next year, the YMCA in the United States will celebrate 175 years of service. We will celebrate 140 years of service. While it is fun to look forward to these milestones, I think it is important for us to stop and look backwards. This is a great organization and one that will continue to serve our area for another 139 years to come.
See you at the Y!
Steve Smith, President and CEO
Posted on: October 29, 2025