Community man reaching out to help B.R. Ryall YMCA tell its story
Walter Johnson, the new chief executive officer at the B.R. Ryall YMCA in Glen Ellyn, is laughing and joshing with front desk staff and members who walk through the lobby.
Getting to know community residents and employees is what he's all about these days. So far, he's pleased with the reception.
"I don't know if I've found a Y that is more community-friendly," said Johnson, who came to his new position after serving five years as the Heritage YMCA Group's vice president of resource development.
"We're not the newest place. We're not the shiniest, don't have all the bells and whistles. There's just a comfortable feeling when you walk in the door."
Johnson seems to fit right in.
He's always been the community guy. At Heritage Group YMCA - which serves Naperville, Aurora and Oswego - he led fundraising efforts and helped re-establish the Y's presence in Aurora.
"We re-engaged the community and helped them take ownership of the YMCA again," he said.
Tom Beerntsen, president and chief executive officer of the Heritage Group YMCA, said Johnson was a champion of making the Y's programs affordable to all by raising money to provide fee assistance to those in need.
"He is so good at building relationships and articulating the work we do," Beerntsen said. "They have hired a good guy."
Before joining the Heritage Group YMCA, Johnson was on staff at North Central College for 23 years, ending as athletic director. He led the renovation of the Merner Field House and hired coaches who are still on staff.
His community involvement didn't stop there. A resident of Naperville for 33 years, he serves on the city's police and fire commission, is president-elect of the Naperville Exchange Club and will be master of ceremonies at this year's Ribfest.
Johnson also serves on the board of Wheaton Academy. The only reason he hasn't joined any organizations in Glen Ellyn is that he hasn't been there long enough, he said.
John Cochrane, president of the B.R. Ryall YMCA, said Johnson's upbeat, outgoing nature appealed to board members when they looked for a replacement for Ed Knapp, who retired after 20 years at the Y's helm. Johnson was chosen out of nearly 50 candidates and three finalists, Cochrane said.
"We were really looking for a candidate who could take the next step," he said. "He was, by far, our first choice."
Getting to know youJohnson jumped in with both feet on May 24. During his first three weeks, he met individually with all the Y's full-time staff, attended a Coffee with Cops, met with Glen Ellyn's village manager and the superintendent of Glenbard High School District 87, and went to a Rotary meeting.More meetings with individuals and visits to civic groups were lined up for the weeks ahead."Getting out and meeting people is exactly what I've been doing," he said. "My wife would tell you, I've not been spending a lot of time at home these days."Johnson said he wants to help a good Y become even better by expanding the services it provides. "It's been a comfortable situation serving Glen Ellyn, but really we have a bigger mission and bigger responsibility," he said.The Y's corporate name is actually the YMCA of Northwestern DuPage County with a service area that includes Wheaton, Glendale Heights, Carol Stream, Winfield, Warrenville and West Chicago.Currently, 60 percent of the Y's membership comes from Glen Ellyn, 35 percent from Wheaton and 5 percent from the other communities, Johnson said. He'd like the Y to have a greater presence in some form in those other communities.The B.R. Ryall YMCA is the Y's only building, although it runs before- and after-school programs in 17 schools. The aquatics facility needs to be renovated, he said.Seniors have a strong presence at the B.R. Ryall YMCA, where one woman tells Johnson that she and her husband have been members since 1971."It's just a special niche," he said. "The seniors have decided this is their home, their community center."But Johnson said he also would like to see the youth programs strengthened to attract more of the middle school and high school crowd."We've got to find our cool again," he said.Outgoing introvertAll this activity and outreach might seem an unlikely occupation for a man who says he has the personality traits of a bona fide introvert. Friendly as he is, Johnson likes his time apart."I'm just as comfortable cutting the grass for an hour - as I am, oddly enough, in front of 1,000 people," he said.He's always had private and public personalities, Johnson said. He grew up as a preacher's kid, one of 11 children. In the small churches in which his dad served in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Johnson was teaching Sunday school and leading praise services at age 10. The ministry became increasingly nondenominational under his dad's leadership. Johnson recalls looking over the congregation and seeing black Americans dressed in their Sunday best, elderly white farmers in their overalls, and hippie-looking young people with long hair and torn jeans."(It) looked like the United Nations," he said. "That's what the Y should look like."When Johnson was in high school, his family moved to Chicago's south suburbs. He graduated from North Central College, and worked at a sales and marketing position at a major company before returning to North Central as an admissions counselor.Johnson rose through the administrative ranks to athletic director, and decided he had accomplished all he could after nearly 15 years in that position. That's when Beerntsen, then the new head of the Heritage Group YMCA, hired Johnson to help expand the Y's outreach.Johnson said he didn't have experience with the Y as a youth, but its purposes meshed with his own desire to serve."The Y is really a service organization," he said. "Our role is to support a strong family unit in whatever form that comes."Johnson credits his own wife, Lynne, and three children - ages 9. 20 and 26 - with making him feel so blessed that he needs to give back. "They are without question the best thing that has happened to me," he said. "I enjoy my family."So when he talks about Y, he describes how it can help children and families in ways that make communities stronger. Children of working parents have before- and after-school programs to attend instead of being alone at home. Misguided youth are given heroes to emulate. Athletics build strong bodies and character."I am the YMCA's biggest fan," Johnson said. "I'm going to work with the staff here and the communities we're responsible for to tell the story how the Y can make every community better."True13422000Walter Johnson, upper right, believes Y programs, like the class led by Anca Paduraru, help individuals, families and communities grow stronger.Scott Sanders | Staff PhotographerTrue