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Business & Tech

On the Job: 'Every Day Is Different'

Former gymnast Debby Lenz, associate executive director of the YMCA in Santee, loves the variety in her job and connection with local families.

As a former gymnast, Debby Lenz knows how to keep her balance.

Yet, she recalls the day back in October of 2003 when the was holding its grand opening and Lenz, recently appointed the new facility’s associate executive director, was wondering if her tenure was about to be the shortest in the history of the YMCA.

After weeks of pushing to get the facility ready, the big day arrived – but so did something else.

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“If you’ll remember back, there was a very important fire (then),” she says. “We opened in the morning and that night the fire started.

“So we almost had an opening and closing on the same day. All the hills behind me where all those condos are (now), we were the only thing out here. There was nothing out here. But I was actually here with two other staff and we watched the fire come down the hills and we finally got the call to get the heck out of there. So, it was a tough start because that of course threw a lot of things out of whack.

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“But, you know, it was all downhill (after that).”

The was a devastating experience for much of the county, yet the Cameron Facility on Riverwalk Drive wasn’t touched.

Since that time, Lenz and her staff have helped make the facility – a partnership between the city of Santee and the YMCA -- a bustling hub of activity for some 2,500 members who take advantage of the pools, fitness facilities and gymnastics program.

The Cameron Facility is one of three branches under the umbrella of the East County Family YMCA, along with the McGrath branch in Spring Valley/Rancho San Diego and the John A. Davis branch in La Mesa. Together, the three branches have approximately 7,500-8,000 members, with memberships good for all three facilities.

For Lenz, 57, the job as associate executive director has been an adventure and a great fit for the gymnastics coach and confessed “hyperactive” lifelong athlete, who started working for the YMCA in 1983.

Today Lenz oversees the operation at the Cameron Facility, continues to coach gymnastics – which is what led her to the YMCA in the first place – and feels like she can make a difference in an organization where she feels so comfortable.

 “It’s a really good organization and I’m starting my 29th year, so that kind of says a lot to stay that long,” she says.

Multi-tasking and commuting

Lenz’s office is decorated with a large, framed Beatles poster and photos of her husband, friends, family and dogs, Folly and Matilda.

Each morning before she heads to work, she and her husband, Robert Drake – director of production at the Old Globe Theater in Balboa Park – take their dogs for a walk in their neighborhood around Balboa Park.

“That’s my date every morning,” she says.

Then, while Robert is close enough to bike to work, Lenz makes the 30-minute drive to Santee to start her day. It gives her a chance to get some work done – “Thank God for Bluetooth,” she says, laughing – and get her thoughts together so she can hit the ground running.

Her job includes management of the facility, working with the staff responsible for the various departments – fitness, aquatics, gymnastics and membership – the endless fund-raising that’s necessary when working for a non-profit and helping to manage the budgets of all three branches and recruiting volunteers.

“Working for a non-profit is a big challenge,” she says. “It’d be nice to have all kinds of endless resources, so we spend a lot of time working on how to balance our budget and the fund-raising aspect and it puts you … you get in crisis mode sometimes and you kind of have to pull back and say, ‘OK, we’ll get through this.’ But it is challenging.”

In addition, there is her favorite part of the job: several times a day, she makes certain to leave her office and make the rounds of the entire facility, talking to staff and members.

On one recent afternoon, as she was giving a visitor a tour of the facility, several members in the lap pool called out to Lenz by name and she took time to stop and talk.

“I’m the kind of person who likes to chat and find out about people’s lives,” she says.

Gymnastics and dance

Gymnastics provided Lenz’s path toward a career with the YMCA.

She grew up in Hatboro, Pa., and already was a four-letter high school athlete, competing in basketball, field hockey, lacrosse and track, when she discovered gymnastics.

She continued with gymnastics through college – she attended West Chester University in Pennsylvania and earned her degree in human services from Springfield College in Massachusetts -- and also spent time at Temple University in Philadelphia where she soaked up whatever she could from a school known for its gymnastics programs.

She moved to California to teach gymnastics in Monterey, then moved to San Diego in 1983 to teach and coach gymnastics for the YMCA.

Today, even as associate executive director, she still tries to carve out time to help with the gymnastics program.

She teaches dance to the older gymnasts in the program, and helps with their choreography.

“I felt like it was really important for me, being an artist, being a dancer, I needed that,” she says of continuing to coach. “I know a lot of people say you do that outside your work, but I think that’s what drew me here.”

These days, Lenz’s biggest athletic passion is her dancing. In college, she was introduced to ballet and fell in love with it.

She dances at least three times a week with a group at Stage 7 School of Dance in North Park, and it’s both an artistic and athletic release.

“It turned out to be something I really loved,” she says of ballet. “And it’s so much harder than any sport I’ve ever done.”

Meanwhile, after nearly 30 years with the Y, she still feels in step with her job and her mission. She loves the “terrific” staff in Santee, the families she's come to know so well and the support she gets from the organization.

“Every day is different,” she says. “Every day somebody different comes in the door.”

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