YMCA of Greater San Antonio Tejas Federation
We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities.

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What is the Y Adventure Guide Program?
The Adventure Guide program is geared to foster understanding and companionship between parent and child. For the most part, this a Father / Child partnership of growth, fun and bonding. Events and meetings are one-on-one planned quality time with your child (ages 5-9) that enriches both of your lives and builds the foundation for a positive, lifelong relationship.

The Adventure Guide program offers parents many opportunities to be the teacher of values, attitudes and skills on a one-on-one basis with your child apart from the rest of the family.  All events, activities, and projects emphasize parent and child working, playing, and learning together. You and your child, together with other parent/child pairs, will join or form a “circle” and attend monthly circle meetings and federation events.

In their monthly meetings, “circle” members enjoy making crafts, storytelling, games and snacks, and making new friends. Click here to read more history and information.

How do I become part of a circle?
There are several ways. Circle are comparable to troops in scouting. They are made up of same gender, same age children that typically attend the same school. We have had parents create an entire circle then everyone joins at 1 time. If you do not know of any circles in your child's school or in your area, we will be happy to help you create a circle or find a circle for you.

What do I do if I have more than 1 child eligible to join and/or they are not the same gender?
Again, this is not an issue. While some dad's are able to find time to join multiple circles for each child, we understand that this is not always possible. Often, sibling pairs will be in one circle and even have circles created to fit families with multiple children and mixed genders. Again, call us so we can help you find the best circle for your family.

What if my child is part of a non-traditional family?
Our mission is to provide the best experience for the child. So, if your family is non-traditional, meaning there is no father present, we see no reason why a grandfather, uncle, or mother can not be the adult member of the pair. Please call us to discuss your families composition.

What kind of time commitment am I looking at with the program?
Everything you do with the program is set by you. There is not required participation or attendance. Typically, each circle meets once a month for activities ranging from going out to eat, a craft project, service learning, movies and more. Additionally, the Federation has monthly events. In the Tejas Federation, events are fun. Federation events this year consists of Missions baseball, Skating, Spurs Game, Sweet Heart Dance and Camping!  We camp 3 times a year in which we have activities such as fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, swimming, and lots of other fun activities!

What are the fees?
Annual dues are based on the school year, thus covering August 2007-July 2008. The annual fee for o7-08 is $85 per pair (child/adult) then $35 for each additional child. There is also an annual program membership fee of $30. If you hold a YMCA of Greater San Antonio family membership or program membership, then the fee is waived. For each Federation Event, there is a fee applied as with most Circle gatherings.

How do I join the program? Registration Form
It is simple. You can download, print and complete the registration form and then mail it to the address below or take it to your local branch in the YMCA of Greater San Antonio (find a local branch).

Mail Registration & Payment:	Fax Registration:
YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow	830-238-4280
PO Box 770
Hunt, TX 78024

I have a few more questions, who can I contact?
Bill Hinton, YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow Executive Director, serves as the YMCA of Greater San Antonio Adventure Guide leader. Feel free to contact him via Email or call camp directly at 1-800-765-9622 ext 22.

Read below for more information about Y Guides and YMCA History!

About YMCA Adventure Guides
In today's world, a child and a parent rarely have time together: to laugh, to talk, to become friends, and to learn about each other. But this was realized long ago in the 1920s by Harold Keltner, a St. Louis YMCA director. He started a father-son program with help from an Ojibway Indian hunting guide named Joe Friday. The program was based on Native American qualities of culture and life: Dignity, Patience, Endurance, Spirituality, Feelings for the Earth, and Concern for the Family. Thus was created the first Y-Indian Guide program.

A New Direction: Life is a journey. The journey anticipates challenges and choices. Along the way are significant guides. The journey begins within the sacred tribe of family. Parents serve as primary guides to help children navigate known obstacles. Parents entrust their children to other significant guides. It is an expedition for the ages. In the YMCA , we believe that if we build strong communities that nurture and strengthen families, then children will start early and finish strong. This has been our legacy , and it now will be imbedded in a new direction: YMCA Adventure Guides . Two mottoes are given to us from the traditions of the past: Pals Forever and Friends Always.

We go forward uniting them with a new motto: Friends Forever.

History of the YMCA
The YMCA was founded in London, England, in 1844 by George Williams and a dozen or so friends who lived and worked as clerks in a drapery – a forerunner of dry-goods and department stores. Their goal was to save fellow live-in clerks from the wicked life on the London streets. The first members were evangelical Protestants who prayed and studied the Bible as an alternative to vice. The Y has always been nonsectarian and today accepts those of all faiths at all levels of the organization, despite its unchanging name, the Young Men’s Christian Association.

The first U.S. YMCA started in Boston in 1851, the work of Thomas Sullivan, a retired sea captain who was a lay missionary. Y's spread fast and soon were serving boys and older men as well as young men. Although 5,145 women worked in YMCA military canteens in World War I, it wasn't until after World War II that women and girls were admitted to full membership and participation in the U.S. YMCAs. Today half of all YMCA constituents and staff members are women. Also, half of the Y’s constituents are 18 or under.  The YMCA is the largest nonprofit community service organization in America. It is at the heart of community life in neighborhoods and towns across the nation. It works to meet the health and social service needs of 13.8 million men, women, and children. Y's help people develop values and behavior that are consistent with Christian principles. Y's are for people of all faiths, races, abilities, ages, and incomes. No one is turned away for inability to pay. The YMCA’s strength is in the people it brings together.  In the average Y, a volunteer board sets policy for its executive, who manages the operation with full-time and part-time staff and volunteer leaders. Y's meet local community needs through organized activities called programs. In its own way, every Y nurtures the healthy development of children and teens, strengthens families, and makes its community a healthier, safer, and better place to live. Best known for community-based health and fitness programs, the Y teaches kids to swim, organizes youth basketball games, offers exercise classes for people with disabilities, and leads adult aerobics. Y's also offer hundreds of other programs, including day camp for kids, child care (the Y is the largest not-for-profit provider in the United States), teen clubs, environmental programs, substance abuse prevention, family nights, job training, international exchange, and many more.

History of YMCA Guide & Princess Program
The first Y-Indian Guide Program was developed to support parents’ vital role as teachers, counselors, and friends to their children. Harold S. Keltner, St. Louis YMCA Director, initiated the program as an integral part of Association work. In 1926, he organized the first tribe in Richmond Heights, Missouri, with the help of his good friend, Joe Friday, an Ojibway Indian, and William H. Hefelfinger, chief of the first Y-Indian Guide tribe. Inspired by his experiences with Joe Friday, who was his guide on fishing and hunting trips into Canada, Harold Keltner established a program of parent-child experiences that now involves over 200,000 children and adults annually in the YMCA.  Joe Friday planted the seed for this program during a hunting trip he and Mr. Keltner took to Canada. One evening, the Ojibway said to his white colleague as they sat around a blazing campfire: “The Indian father raises his son. He teaches his son to hunt, to track, to fish, to walk softly and silently in the forest, to know the meaning and purpose of life and all he must know, while the white man allows the mother to raise his son.”  These comments struck home, and Harold Keltner arranged for Joe Friday to work with him at the St. Louis YMCA.  The Ojibway Indian spoke before groups of YMCA boys and their fathers in St. Louis, and Mr. Keltner discovered that fathers, as well as boys, had a keen interest in the traditions and ways of the American Indian. At the same time, Harold Keltner, being greatly influenced by the work of Ernest Thompson Seton, great lover of the out-of doors, conceived the idea of a father-and-son program based upon the strong qualities of American Indian culture and life – dignity, patience, endurance, spirituality, harmony with nature, and concern for the family. Thus the first Y-Indian Guide program was born more than half a century ago.  The rise of the family YMCA following World War II, the genuine need for supporting little girls in their personal growth, and the demonstrated success of the father-son program nurtured the development of YMCA parent-daughter groups.

In 1954, father-daughter groups, now known as Y-Indian Princesses, emerged in the Fresno, California YMCA. The YPapoose Program, a program for a preschool child and his parent, was sparked by a real-life need. A YMCA staff member in Orlando, Florida, had an older daughter in a Y-Indian Princess tribe. Each week, when he and his older daughter went to tribal meetings, the younger daughter – a preschooler – began to cry. She couldn't understand why there wasn't a special time for her. In asking around, the Y staff member found that other families had the same problem. It was easy for him to find enough parents to put together the first Y-Papoose tribe.

YMCA of Greater San Antonio History and Statement:
For some people, the YMCA is a place for children and families to come together to learn and play, exercise and swim and have fun. For others, the YMCA itself is a surrogate family; a source of not only education and recreation, but of belonging, character development, community service and community leadership. Traditions and values instilled at the Y carry on from one life stage to the next, from one generation to following generations.

And so it has been at the YMCA of Greater San Antonio for 129 years. Sometimes the Y's influence isn't passed down to younger generations, but up to older ones. Children who learn to care for themselves and others, teens who learn they are responsible for who they become all bring their positive experiences home to siblings and parents, even grandparents, who then become involved in Y programs themselves. And the Y's active fund raising efforts help provide program scholarships for people in need of financial assistance to participate.

The YMCA mission: to put Judeo-Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all - has withstood the global storms of time for almost 160 years now. In light of this mission, the YMCA of Greater San Antonio continues to:

• Support families with the care, education and recreation of children from early childhood through young adulthood
• Develop positive character: caring, honesty, respect, responsibility and faith
• Assist individuals of all ages in achieving healthy lifestyles
• Teach civic and community leadership.

YMCA Mission Statement:

To put Judeo-Christian principles into practice through programs
 that build healthy Spirit, Mind, and Body for ALL.

YMCA Vision Statement:

We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities

YMCA Pillars of Character:

Guide Program Purpose
The purpose of the Y-Guide Program is to foster understanding
and companionship between father and son.

Princess Program Purpose
The purpose of the Y- Princess Program is to foster understanding
and companionship between father and daughter.

Slogan

“Friends Forever”

Aims

Character Values

Honesty – Truthfulness and genuineness with self and others. Your personal and professional honesty is an asset to YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow. Honesty is the foundation for the goal of excellence in your performance and judgment.

Expectation- We expect you to strive for personal honesty; to be truthful with yourself and others; to be genuine and straightforward with members, program participants, staff, and volunteers; to uphold standards of conduct; and to empower those you work with.

Respect – Honor toward others, humility. YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow is part of an organization that serves people of many races, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. It is imperative to show respect for the diversity of our members, campers, and staff.

Expectation – We expect you to strive to be empathetic and courteous; to model respectful and tolerant behavior; to treat all people with dignity and equality; to be a good listener and not to prejudge people or their actions.

Responsibility – Trustworthiness; the ability to be depended upon. Responsibility is a two-way street. YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow has a responsibility to be accountable for its actions with regard to you. You have a responsibility to be accountable for your actions within the YMCA.

Expectation – We expect you to strive for excellence in your work; to be dependable and on time; to have a positive attitude; to praise others; to be consistent and disciplined; and to resolve conflict in private and without gossip.

Caring (Unconditional Love) – A choice to care without conditions or limitations. This value may be the most difficult to emulate. YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow stands for values vital to a healthy society.

Expectation – We expect you to strive to be a kind, loving caring example; to devote yourself to the work of YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow, and to recognize the innate good in others.

Faith -- Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow is a Christian organization that promotes Christian principles by living the values listed here.

Expectation -- We expect you to be a role model of faith in your beliefs and faith in yourself. You may express your beliefs to campers and staff but are also expected to be open to others' beliefs.

Two Additional Values added to the Adventure Guide Program::

Service – Assistance in meeting the needs of others. YMCA Camp Flaming Arrow is a service organization. We strive to provide the best experience possible for those involved with camp.

Expectation – We expect you to strive to show genuine concern and give undivided attention to those you are helping; to realize you are a steward and leader in your role at camp; to bring a sense of passion and enthusiasm to your work; and to be fully committed to your job.

Forgiveness – The granting of a pardon without resentment. Forgiveness is the final step in the process of healing a wrong action or word. After recognizing a wrong, apologizing for it, and atoning for it, the person responsible receives forgiveness from those who have been hurt.

Expectation – We expect you to recognize your own weakness; to learn from your own mistakes; to be open to constructive correction; to realize that the process of growth and learning is a lifelong one; and to forgive those that intentionally or unintentionally hurt you.

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Find the YMCA of Greater San Antonio Branch nearest you
Contact Adventure Guide Coordinator, Bill Hinton via phone at 800-765-9622 or email