Saratoga News

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Griffith, McIntosh know Y they volunteer

By Cyrus Hedayati

Jackie Griffith recently graduated from Saratoga High School. Don McIntosh is a retired engineer. But despite their different backgrounds, the two have found a common calling at the YMCA: helping children.

The Southwest Y has named Saratoga's McIntosh the adult volunteer of the year and Griffith the teen volunteer of the year for making it a warm environment for kids, and for improving the facilities in general.

McIntosh has been deeply involved in the citizen schools program at the Southwest Y, but also used his background in engineering to remodel its aging buildings. Teaching youth fitness classes to children ages 5 to 8, Griffith has also helped raise $21,000 for the branch.

Like many volunteers at the YMCA, Griffith and McIntosh started going to their local branch to work out and stay healthy. Griffith first discovered the Southwest Y when she was 14 and her family moved to Saratoga from Sunnyvale.

"I've always had a lot of fun playing with kids and babysitting, and I just absolutely love it there at the Y," she said of her Youth Fitness Frenzy class. "It's been my favorite place to be all throughout high school. Everyone is really supportive and helpful there."

Griffith soon volunteered for a job teaching kids to stay active. Youth Fitness Frenzy includes fun games that involve exercise, such as Duck Duck Goose.

"I think it's really important for kids to be active and confident about themselves and be willing to go run and play," she said. "It helps them physically, mentally and socially, and it prepares them to deal with people, like their teachers."

Griffith has enjoyed developing relationships with the kids who attend her class, which meets for both indoor and outdoor sessions.

"[Sometimes] after class, one of the kids will go out and bring me a flower and then all of the kids will do the same thing," she said. "And I don't have the heart to tell them not to pick the flowers because they're so cute."

During her junior year, Griffith's belief in the YMCA's services motivated her to campaign for donations to the Southwest branch, she said. After successfully raising $1,300 on her own, she led a fundraising group of 21 people who collected $21,000.

"I got my high school directory and just started calling people that I knew," said Griffith.

McIntosh also supports integrating children into the YMCA's programs, having gone through Indian Guides with all three of his sons--Don, Joel and Aaron--when they were growing up. Now called Y Adventure guides, the small group of fathers and their children gather weekly to play games and make arts and crafts.

"The whole idea of the program is that it sets up a situation where dads play with their kids," he said. "Especially when I was a kid, the situation was that the dad worked and the mom stayed at home. The dad only got to see his kid for a little bit and then it's bedtime."

But it wasn't until McIntosh returned to the YMCA after retirement that he began volunteering to improve it. After he underwent hip replacement surgery in 2002, he began using the Southwest Y's physical therapy programs to get back on his feet.

"I was basically disabled at the time," said McIntosh.

But as he spent more and more time at the Southwest Y, the retired engineer noticed that its buildings needed some physical rehabilitation of their own: Many of them were built in the 1950s.

"They were built quite well, but they needed some TLC," he said.

While his engineering experience was mainly within the aerospace and chip design industries, McIntosh joined the Southwest Y's board of managers and became leader of the property committee to improve its buildings.

"The Y isn't exactly a manufacturing facility, but that did give me a bit of background," he said.

But McIntosh also wanted to contribute to the YMCA's programs, he said, particularly those dealing with children. He found his opportunity with citizen schools, a program that uses community volunteers to teach middle school students career skills and healthy study habits.

"Part of what the Y brings to the community is a set of values, and programs and activities that are specifically designed to enhance those values," he said.

McIntosh helped bring in several community volunteers to talk to the students, including a computer chip designer, a poet and even a San Jose State University cheerleader.

"It's just like another part of school and it tends to be a little bit more fun and teaches the kids something they could use in a career," said McIntosh.

Now that he has received the adult volunteer of the year award for his service, McIntosh hopes to stay connected to his community through the Southwest Y, he said.

"When I was working, I was involved in a global business, so I really didn't spend that much time in the community. Since I've retired, it's really allowed me to get involved," said McIntosh. "I've also gained a lot of personal growth and personal self-esteem, seeing the difference it can make with the kids."