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Chris Pallatto: Why the Y?

For most people, summer camp is a rusty childhood memory of campfires, counselors, and camaraderie. For Chester resident Chris Pallatto, now 44, summer camp was the determining event of his life. Chris is the CEO and Executive Director of the Valley Shore YMCA, and it was summer camp that started him on his career path.

“You try to use your skills in your job, whatever you are good at, and I was good at camp. I wanted to go all year. I lived for capture the flag,” he recalls of a classic camp game.

Chris took over the Valley Shore YMCA about four years ago, after it had gone through a difficult stretch. Membership, and therefore revenues, were hit by the recession. A period of management upheaval led to the departure of the former director. But, according to Chris, things are looking better now.

“We’ve even managed to run a very small surplus for the last three years,” he says.

And that is an accomplishment because each YMCA is an independent organization.

“People think we get money from the towns or from the YMCA organization, but we don’t,” he says.

In fact, the YMCA pays to belong to the national organization, which provides training in leadership as well as program areas and business strategies. The formal title of the national organization is still the YMCA, but since a rebranding campaign in the 1980s, most advertising and publicity has referred to it as the Y.

Fees to join the YMCA provide not only for all of its ongoing programs and expenses, but also for camperships for youngsters, scholarships for reduced memberships, and some programs that are free. Among the free offerings are Hope is Power, a 12-week sequence designed to help cancer survivors regain strength, muscle tone and flexibility, and Splash, a week of free swim lessons for children up to the age of 12.

“Drowning is still the second largest cause of death in children,” Chris points out.

For many people, in fact, the introduction to the YMCA is its swimming program and some people think that is all the YMCA does.

“People are surprised at the scope and depth of our programs,” Chris says.

He notes, for instance, that the Y is the largest provider of childcare in the United States. In addition to onsite childcare facilities, the Valley Shore Y also provides after-school care programs in a number of local schools.

Chris wants the Valley Shore YMCA to offer services all along the age spectrum from activities for seniors and families to Mommy and Me, a program for new parents and their infants.

“We call it Mommy and Me, but daddies are welcome,” Chris says.

Chris divides the area’s growing senior population into two groups.

“There are people who don’t think of themselves as seniors, who are living healthier, working out regularly, and look at other people as seniors, but say, ‘That’s not me,’” he says.

Many of those people urge the YMCA to hold more evening exercise classes since they still work. Then, there are seniors who, Chris describes, as reclaiming health after medical challenges. The YMCA has exercise classes for Parkinson sufferers and in January will start Ti Ji Quan, a new program of balance classes for seniors.

“You know they say falls are the gateway to the nursing home and this program is meant to help [alleviate that situation],” Chris says.

Still, the YMCA currently faces challenges, largely in the form of its building, which, at 40 years old, no longer provides adequate or aesthetic space for all its activities. At the moment, one of the two pools in the building is closed and inoperative. All this comes at a time when the Valley Shore Y is about to celebrate a significant milestone, the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1917. (The national organization got its start even earlier in 1844.) And to meet its second century, the Y has expansion plans. It is now in what Chris calls the pre-funding stage. At the moment the YMCA has two committees, one assessing community needs and the other a market feasibility study to determine what the community will pay for.

Chris says surveys so far indicate that among other needs, people want more space to interact with each other, community space to chat, have a coffee, and have family activities. He says that people want improvements to the fitness center, which he refers to as the wellness center, and, overall, a modern facility that is welcoming and inviting.

Whether to renovate the inoperative pool or use the space differently remains an open question. When both pools were in use, one was a warm water pool, with a temperature of 83 degrees—“That is the appropriate temperature for laps and recreation, good for youngsters and for people with arthritis,” Chris says, but he adds, “There is also a strong interest by competitive swimmers for a pool two degrees cooler.”

Chris, who grew up in Southington, majored in finance at Central Connecticut State University, but when he went on job interviews, it soon became clear he was on the wrong track.

“I couldn’t imagine doing any of those jobs,” he says.

A roommate suggested that since he had enjoyed both YMCA camp and work as a camp counselor, that he should look for a career with the organization.

“The room stood still and I realized ‘Of course I should,’” he remembers.

He started out as associate executive director of the Waterbury YMCA; then as executive director of the Wheeler Family Regional YMCA, a branch of the Greater Hartford YMCA; and then vice-president for membership and strategic development of the Greater Hartford YMCA. He is also a past president of the Connecticut Association of YMCA Professionals, where he became acquainted with the Valley-Shore YMCA.

“I thought this Y had so much untapped potential and it is in such a great part of the state,” he says. “This was a dream job for me.”

One of the new activities Chris has brought to the Valley Shore YMCA is the community garden, which last year produced 3,000 pounds of vegetables for the Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries. He wanted the garden located right out in the front of the Y, he says, “to raise awareness of hunger.” Sometimes on Saturdays, he rounds up any of his four children who are available to come down and work at the garden with him. Chris’s wife, Sharon, is a special education teacher at The Light House in Niantic. They have a blended family of four children, Cayden, 12; Gavin, 8; Layla, 6; and Rylan, 5.

Chris has promised this year to be a more active participant in his favorite activity, the Valley Shore YMCA’s triathlon club, a group that he says has about 70 to 80 members ranging in age from teens to seniors. He does shorter races, like the summer triathlons at Cedar Lake in Chester. To his surprise, he found that the open-water swim was his best leg of the course. He had thought it would be either the bike or the run.

Chris not only loves camps, he writes about them. With co-author Ron DeFazio, he wrote The Summer Camp Survival Guide: Cool Games, Camp Classics and How to Capture the Flag.

“We realized there wasn’t one resource where you could find all this stuff,” he says.

The book is not only for counselors, but also for would-be campers so they know what to expect from camp. Chris and DeFazio also started a website for everything about camp:www.ultimatecampresource.com.

Chris has his own very simple definition of a successful summer day camp experience: “I take it as a personal success when a kid falls asleep in the car on the way home,” he says.

For more information on the Valley Shore YMCA and its programs, visit www.vsymca.org