Mon Valley YMCA assistant director enjoyed ‘amazing journey’
One morning, a man came to the Mon Valley YMCA requesting a tour of the newly expanded facilities.
Susan Capocciama, assistant executive director of the YMCA, obliged, taking him room to room throughout the building.
“When we went into the meeting room which overlooks the pool, it was such a surprise to him that he started to cry,” she said. He told her that he never expected such an incredible expansion of services at the YMCA.
“To me, that just reflects the hard work done here over the different generations,” she said.
For Capocciama, the Mon Valley YMCA was a volunteer project that turned into a profession and then became a life changing experience of helping others and touching the lives of many in the Mid-Mon Valley.
As the year ends, Capocciama will retire after 30 years, but while she is leaving the YMCA, the organization will remain with her.
Turning 70 “pushed me to move forward,” Capocciama said.
“I really love what I do, but there is another part of my life I want pursue,” Capocciama said. “I never intended to work this long. I’ve been retiring for eight years. You can’t put this much of your life into something and walk away. I always said this was like my third child.”
Her journey with the YMCA started in 1982 when local leaders were trying to raise funds to build a gymnasium, pool, racquetball courts and meeting room. Mon Valley Progress Council Executive Director Bob Logue proposed organizing events in each community to support fundraising. Capocciama, who lived in Finleyville, volunteered to represent the YMCA at those events in her community.
“We got a team of volunteers … and made calls telling people the Y was expanding. There was a lot of hands-on work to get the Y started,” she said.
Capocciama said many rolled up their sleeves and pitched in. She recalled that Mike and Dave Lee of Lee Supply dug trenches for the sewage system for the YMCA facilities.
“There’s been a strong foundation of support for the Y,” Capocciama said. “Families like the Bassis, Ruschaks, LaCartes, Lees have supported the Y right down the generations, and they’re maintaining that commitment.”
Capocciama was working part-time in marketing when the newly expanded section of the YMCA opened in 1986.
“It was my job to get people in here,” Capocciama said.
After four years of service, in July 1986, then-Executive Director Ken Wiltz asked her to join the YMCA as full-time assistant executive director.
She currently works for YMCA Director Jeff Vitale, who took over when Wiltz retired in 2010. She is involved in the overall management of the YMCA, working with the directors of each department.
She also helped promote the Mid-Mon Valley. With a grant from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, in the early 1990s, the YMCA produced a pamphlet, “Quality of Life the Mid-Mon Valley,” which was used by realtors, the Mon Valley Progress Council and the Middle Monongahela Industrial Development Association when recruiting people.
“As far a community agency, we were one of the first community agencies who served the whole valley,” Capocciama said.
In retirement, Capocciama hopes to do some traveling with her husband, John, but she plans to continue working on a comprehensive history of the Mon Valley YMCA.
“The YMCA has had continuous growth from 1986 to this point,” Capocciama said.
“We’ve created family recreation for the whole family. The Y impacts just about everyone from preschool classes to the swimming pool. Families often come together. What would the valley do without the Y? The parking lot is full from 5:30 in the morning to 10 at night.”
A member of the board for most of her career, she will remain board secretary in retirement.
“I’m not going to be away too long,” she said. “I feel privileged to have had this job. I’m a people person. I love the staff and the members.”
And she has enjoyed meeting and working with the people of the valley.
“I’ve had an incredible time meeting so many people in the valley,” Capocciama said. “I give everybody who is involved in anything in this valley so much credit. That’s the reason the quality of life in the valley is so much better.”