Giles Reflects on Time in FDL, Looking Forward to New Role in Houston

Greg Giles will be saying goodbye to the Fond du Lac area
at the end of this month as he steps into a new role in Houston. The announcement
came Wednesday that the current CEO of the Fond du Lac Family YMCA would be
stepping down to become the Chief Advancement Officer for the YMCA of Greater Houston.
Giles says the community has been very kind to both his family and to the YMCA.
“The most amazing thing is just the people we’ve met here,” Giles said. “Up and
down, caring individual after caring individual, and you wanted to wake up
every day and do more for those individuals. That’s the thing I’m the proudest of
– the relationships we built – and then from that the trust they gave us to
continue to do things.”  Giles says his
new role in Houston will oversee philanthropy and marketing and communication. “Obviously,
we need to raise dollars in order to do the mission work of the YMCA, but the
important part is how do we get that communication out on the impact,” Giles
said. He adds that the YMCA is so much more than just a “swim & gym” – saying
that he’s excited to go to the Houston YMCA where they work to get resources
for refugees and victims of human trafficking.

Giles says the YMCA in this day and age has become kind of a
“front porch” for the community that is all-inclusive, where people can meet and
gather with their neighbors. He says that they have always thought ‘outside of
the box’ when looking at how the Fond du Lac YMCA should operate. “We never
looked at how do we serve the mission of the YMCA, we always looked at how do
we serve the needs of the community,” Giles said. “By that, we didn’t have to
keep our work just to what a traditional Y would be doing. We always look at –
what does the community need first? – and if we can figure out a way to solve
that, our needs will take care of themselves.” Giles’ resignation is effective
March 29^th. JJ Raflik, the current Associate Executive Director will
serve as the acting Executive Director/CEO until a replacement is found.