Our Biggest Holi Festival Yet!

June 25, 2022 – A rainbow of colors and smiles flooded the Summit Village Green as the community came together to help the Y celebrate our biggest Holi Festival yet! Friends, families, and even pets, gathered together to celebrate the victory of good over evil and the beauty of spring.

Before the Festival of Colors commenced, we celebrated by participating in Bollywood and BollyX dances, to get our bodies ready for action. Kids enjoyed our arts and crafts station, along with our field games. Which included giant connect four, soccer, and even mini golf! People quickly lined up to taste traditional Indian snacks and to receive beautifully intricate henna tattoos.

    

Once the festival started, the air was covered in a vibrant arrangement of colors and so was everyone participating. Playfully, everyone threw the organic powders into the air and at one another. By the end, everyone's white tee-shirts were beautifully adorned with splashes of pink, green, yellow, orange, and red. It was truly a happy and joyous morning for all to come together to learn, celebrate, and embrace the different cultures in our community. 

The Y strives to be welcoming and inclusive for all. By celebrating diversity, through events such as Holi, we hope our community will continue to grow stronger and more inclusive each day. We are enthusiastically awaiting next years even better Holi Festival!

MISSION FOR DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

The Summit Area YMCA strives to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment where daily operations and programs support the well-being and safety of all individuals. We believe that with open conversations and learning opportunities in a safe environment will help our community become stronger and more inclusive with each passing day. We have dedicated training for our staff to develop their understanding of biases and the many dimensions of diversity, in efforts to remove stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination in our society and better serve our community as a welcoming and supportive environment.

The Summit Area YMCA is the first Diversity, Inclusion and Global Innovation Network YMCA in New Jersey committed to creating a culture in which diversity and inclusion are integral to everyday operations. Through welcoming, inclusive practices and environments, we welcome and engage all people from all diverse groups of the community to help and create lasting, meaningful change. We at the Y realize that in order to better the world around us and for the future, we must unite and work towards the strengthening of the individual in mind, body and spirit. For a stronger individual. For a united community. For a better us.

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SUMMIT AREA YMCA

BERKELEY HEIGHTS YMCA | SUMMIT YMCA | THE LEARNING CIRCLE YMCA

In 1886, we were founded as the Young Men's Christian Association, but today, we are The Y. An association that values, and is made stronger by, its diverse people. We stand for youth development, healthy living and social responsibility — For a better us. We are committed to creating equal opportunity for all regardless of gender, age, disability, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation or religious affiliation. We strive to create a welcoming and inclusive culture in which our four core values — responsibility, honesty, caring and respect — are integral to everyday operations.

Each year, as one of the area’s leading 501(c)3 charitable organizations, the Summit Area YMCA serves more than 15,000 individuals with our free and fee-based programs and services in an area spanning the New Jersey communities of Berkeley Heights, Gillette, Millburn, New Providence, Short Hills, Springfield, Stirling and Summit. Our history is rooted in working side-by-side with our neighbors to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn, grow and thrive. Through the generosity of our members, donors, and partners, we are able to offer financial assistance for our programs and services to those in need.