COLORADO SPRINGS — Shannon Rauen has been calling the Briargate YMCA "home" for the last 13 years. "I trained for a couple of half marathons here," Rauen said as she walked through the facility with me.
But getting herself to walk through the front door for the first time was not easy. The new mom had just moved to Colorado Springs. She was struggling with postpartum depression and battling it alone while her husband was deployed overseas.
"I think as a military spouse, you so often feel like you have to put on this front, especially when your soldier's gone, that everything's under control, that there's nothing to worry about, and that you can manage everything," Rauen said. "But things were slowly starting to unravel for me, and I needed some help. Somebody just happened to mention that the YMCA had a discount for military families, and that's honestly, that's the only thing that brought me through these doors is that I knew I could get a gym membership at a discounted rate. But the moment that I walked through the doors of this YMCA everything changed for me."
Rauen hoped working out would help her out of her depression. But she got more than a workout. She found a community and a place for her children to grow up.
"There were times where I'd go a couple of days without being able to get here, and somebody always called to make sure I was doing okay," she said.
One day her spin instructor introduced her to a new member named Leslie.
"Leslie was also a military spouse and straight out of the gate she totally understood where I was coming from and what I was dealing with," said Rauen. "So, I walked in just to take a spin class and I walked out with a new friend. It was a friendship that would sustain me through that deployment and every other deployment that came after it. Being able to find your tribe and have suddenly gone from having no friends to having friends, people who go out on a girls' night out, or just somebody that you could call and say, 'Gosh, today was hard" and they'd get it and they'd understand and they'd listen to you. Those were things that I didn't have at that point in my life. When I finally was able to connect in that way with people in this community, it changed everything for me and there is no way it would have been possible without the financial assistance that the YMCA provided."
Now Rauen helps make sure other families like hers have those same opportunities as the Executive Director of Development and Community Impact for the YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region.
"The last two words of our mission statement are "For all" and we mean it," Rauen said. "Regardless of how someone walks through our door, regardless of what their financial situation looks like, we're going to find a way to make it work. So if that means that a mom or a dad needs help paying for before or after-school care so that they can continue to go to work, we're going to make that happen. If the family needs assistance getting their kids in youth sports or up to our resident camp "Camp Shady Brook" we're going to make it happen. Seniors who might need help connecting with the community or accessing outreach and education programs, that's what we do. My job is to make sure that the next person who walks the doors like I walked through the doors, that I can say yes to and that is the greatest gift in the world."
It's a gift Rauen uses to encourage others facing similar struggles.
"If there's anyone that's out there that's feeling disconnected or alone get yourself to a YMCA," Rauen said. "I can just about guarantee that when you walk through these doors, you'll find your home and your family too, just like I did."
The YMCA of the Pikes Peak Region has been changing lives for 145 years. You can help them continue that at their annual celebration on October 19 at Boot Barn Hall in Colorado Springs. I will be serving as the emcee of this event.
For more information, visit the Pikes Peak YMCA Website.
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