Over the years, however, the Y has changed. It's let go of its focus on Christianity and young men. Now, anyone can join. It's dropped its housing facilities and become deeply involved in trying to fulfill the needs of its various communities.

Each Y is independently operated and managed by local boards of directors, so each Y meets the specific needs of the community it serves.

For example, the Northwest branch in Cupertino has a technology center with fast Internet access and Office Suite software.

Today, local Ys provide childcare, adult education, physical fitness and language classes; the national organization as a whole has earned the recognition of the U.S. Congress as an outstanding source for helping young people succeed.

For the second year in a row, YMCAs in the United States earned the No. 1 spot on "The Nonprofit Times' Top 100" list of nonprofits as the largest charitable, not-for-profit organization in the United States.

And all the Ys collectively earned $4.7 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year, an increase of $385 million over the previous year.

"We are so successful because of the very strong leadership of the volunteers who serve on YMCA boards and the dedication of our staffs who enthusiastically carry on the Y's mission of strengthening and enriching the development of individuals and families through quality programs and services that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all," says Dave Thornton, CEO of the Santa Clara County YMCA. Thornton has been with the Y for 29 years.

But with 2,575 YMCAs nationwide, the public may not realize that each branch of the Y needs separate funding, according to longtime member Buck Cox of the Northwest YMCA Service Club, which primarily serves Cupertino and Sunnyvale.

Cox, a YMCA district governor, is a 23-year Service Club volunteer and was chairman of the group's 40th anniversary luncheon held on Jan. 22. He says the Y has changed his life and wants to bring more attention to the service group, which serves as a fundraising arm for Northwest YMCA.

"I've gotten more out of serving than I've put into it," Cox says. "I've been to conventions and visited other service clubs. With the people I've met, I have contacts throughout the United States. I've gotten to do things I never thought I would."

The Northwest branch of the Y actually opened in 1964 in Sunnyvale, with the birth of its service club. Since then, the service club has raised more than$500,000 for projects, like the new playground on the Northwest Y property which cost $45,000.

"When you work at something and you see children playing on that playground, you really feel like you've done something to make the world better than you found it," Cox says.

At the unveiling of the new playground, members of the service club recognized other groups such as the Cupertino Rotary who helped with the physical labor. "They were very quick to turn out and make it a community thing," says Cheryl Vargas, executive director of the Northwest Y. "We're absolutely fortunate and blessed to have them. Every year, they ask us, 'What do you need?' "

Vargas says that in addition to providing rehabilitation for the YMCA building, members of the service club pitch in with crab feeds for the Fremont Union High School District and involve teenagers in the community through gift-wrapping services at Vallco Fashion Park. Other Ys in the area have service clubs, but Vargas says that the one at the Northwest Y is the most active by far with 30 dues-paying members.

"We're all ages, nationalities and co-ed--basically a family," Cox says.

The emphasis on family is a shift since The Young Men's Christian Association was founded 160 years ago on June 6, 1844 in London, England. Its mission was to offer Bible study and prayer to help young men improve the poor quality of their lives at the time.

The founder, George Williams, enlisted a group of fellow dry-goods salesmen to form the first YMCA at a time when the growth of railroads and centralization of commerce and industry were bringing many rural, young men who needed jobs into big cities such as London and Boston where they lived in unhealthy conditions during the Industrial Revolution.

In 1866, the New York YMCA adopted a fourfold purpose: "The improvement of the spiritual, mental, social and physical condition of young men."

On its website, the YMCA's "Brief History" notes that the idea of the Y, which began among evangelicals, was unusual because it crossed the rigid lines that separated the different churches and social classes. This openness was a trait that would lead eventually to including all men, women and children into the Y, regardless of race, religion or nationality. This would eventually fulfill Williams' goal of meeting the social needs in the community.

Since then, the YMCA has spread to 119 countries around the world from Albania to Vietnam.

The first Y in San Jose opened in 1867. Today, the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley has seven branches and serves more than 100,000 residents year-round by providing childcare, health, aquatics, fitness and teen centers. Programs are accessible to all regardless of financial resources because scholarships are available.

Dave Tatsuno, who will be 92 in March, has served on the Y's county board for 50 years. He first walked into a YMCA in San Francisco when he was a teenager in the 1920s.

"My parents were still in Japan and my guardian wasn't taking very good care of me. I was lonely and the Y had programs that I was interested in. I've been involved ever since," Tatsuno says. "The Y was my father and mother."

Tatsuno became a leader of the YMCA boy's clubs and served on the board in San Francisco's Japantown before he became a student at UC-Berkeley.

During World War II, Tatsuno was evacuated to the Topaz relocation camp in Utah where he helped start a YMCA "behind the barbed wire." YMCA staff worked secretly in U.S. internment camps that held 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Their work consisted of clubs and camping for the youngsters in the camps.

After the war and moving to San Jose, Tatsuno rededicated himself to serving youth through the YMCA in memory of his son who had died during a tonsillectomy. He has travelled more than 250,000 miles for the Y, attending national and international meetings.

Tatsuno's example of healthy living is highlighted by his daily 1/4-mile swim at the Y. He has logged 1,675 miles to date. And his enthusiasm for aquatic activities includes encouraging the creation of a scuba diving class at the Y. These classes have trained over 6,000 people, including this writer.

In the 1970s, the living facilities that had been a part of the Y from its beginning, and were celebrated in song by the Village People's hit "YMCA," began to be phased out nationwide with a boom in construction of up-to-date buildings and equipment to meet the changing needs of local communities.

Childcare for working parents, an extension of what the YMCA had done informally for years, expanded in 1983 and quickly joined health and fitness and camping as a major source of YMCA income. The Northwest Y has between 800 to 900 children in childcare at on-site schools, according to Larry Dean, who is the chairman of the Y's volunteer board.

Providing financial support for parents who couldn't afford childcare is an important objective for Vargas at the Northwest Y. With its yearly fundraising campaign beginning in February, the local goal is $160,000 in 3 1/2 weeks. The money will go toward subsidising teen programs of tutoring and enrichment programs as well as endowing day camp and summer camps for needy children.

The Y's primary youth program today is Adventure Guides, for children from 5 to 9 years old and their parents. This program replaces Indian Guide and Indian Princess clubs, which were for fathers and their sons or daughters. Trailblazers is an extension of Adventure Guides for fathers to work side by side with their preteens to help, encourage and empower them to do their best.

Cupertino Vice Mayor Richard Lowenthal and his daughter participated in the programs for 10 years. He began fundraising on the county level in 1994 and now serves on the county YMCA board.

Larry Dean also became involved at the Y with his two daughters in the Indian Princess program. "They are in their 20s now," he says.

But Dean rejoined the Y's fitness center about five years ago and has been serving on the volunteer board since then.

With growing public interest in the field of youth development, the YMCA of the USA has collaborated with The Search Institute, an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide leadership, knowledge and resources to promote healthy children, youth and communities.

Research by the institute identified 40 personal assets that correlate with pro-social and healthy behavior in youngsters and discourage antisocial and unhealthy behavior. For instance, three of the external assets are: family support, positive family communication and other supportive adult relationships.

And three of the internal assets have to do with the youngster's desire to do well in school and other activities, being responsive, attentive and actively engaged in learning and having a stimulating activity and homework.

Based on its research, the institute reports that: "The more assets a youth has, the more likely he or she is to behave well and the less likely to engage in risky behavior."

The research also shows that it doesn't matter if a program consists of sports, music, a teen center, mentoring or aerobics or if it's aimed at reducing teen pregnancy, smoking or crime. If the program provides one or more of those developmental assets, it will reduce the overall risk of any kind of negative behavior and raise the likelihood of positive behavior.

With the YMCA of Santa Clara County acting as the lead agency, Project Cornerstone was founded by the Youth Alliance of Santa Clara County, a collaboration of the YMCA, YWCA, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, Campfire USA, Estrella Family Services and Girl and Boy Scouts.

The project's mission is to build strong local communities starting with the young, to create an asset-rich country, to help youngsters gain those assets by making preteens and adolescents the top priority.

In addition, the YMCA of the USA recently announced a multi-year initiative called "Activate America" to create community solutions to obesity and chronic disease.

At a subcommittee hearing, U.S. Sena. Tom Harkin said, "I commend the YMCA for its leadership in building healthier communities. Many Americans look to the YMCA to provide a place for physical activity and support healthier lifestyles in their communities. The YMCA is taking one of the many steps needed to prevent chronic diseases and reduce health care costs for a healthier America."

YMCA National Executive Director Kenneth L. Gladish said, "America has unwittingly created an unhealthy society for our children. Lasting change that truly addresses the declining health of our nation needs to be led on the community level. YMCAs have the ability and reach to ignite the development of meaningful solutions that can alter the cycle of physical inactivity, obesity and chronic disease in our nation."

The Northwest YMCA is located at 20803 Alves Drive, Cupertino. For more information call 408.257.7160.

For more information about the Service Club, call Buck Cox at 650.964.3734.