ORANGE PARK – Becoming the new operations branch executive of the Dye-Clay YMCA felt like a homecoming for Brooke Foerman.

She has worked for the YMCA for 12 years in many sectors of the organization. She was recently selected as the new branch executive for Orange Park’s YMCA location and it’s her biggest step up in the company in her career. While she has a lot on her plate as the new director of operations for the branch, the YMCA has never felt more like family than it does at Dye-Clay.

“When I think about what I love about this location, it’s the family aspect,” Foreman said. “Family comes first for me in life and I think that with this branch, it really does feel just like home. That’s what the YMCA is supposed to feel like, too – home.”

Previous branch executive Burt Cannon recently became the YMCA First Coast Sports Commissioner, and Foerman was selected to replace him. It’s a daunting challenge taking over a branch, but Foerman has been preparing for it all of her working life. She calls herself a Y-Baby, because the YMCA has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember.

Her mother worked for the old Yates YMCA in downtown Jacksonville and Foerman spent many of her days as a child there. Her mother was a young, single mother looking for a place to belong – and a place where her children could belong as well. That place was the Y and soon Foerman’s mother began working there.

Foreman quickly fell in love with the organization, growing up in the KidZone and spending her summer months at different camps.

As soon as Foerman was old enough to work, she begged her mother to allow her to work and she quickly became a YMCA’s summer camp counselor. She transitioned from that to the John E. Ford YMCA school in Jacksonville, and her YMCA career continued to different locations like Winston Family YMCA, the Bank of America YMCA and the UF Health YMCA.

She worked in the customer service side, the corporate side and everything in between before realizing that what she loved most was working in membership.

“I realized that I just really loved making those close connections and relationships with our members,” Foerman said.

Throughout her 12-year career at the YMCA, one thing has remained in Foerman’s mind: she wants to make other people feel at home like she did when she was younger.

“The YMCA shaped so much of who I am today,” Foreman said. “It’s unnatural to even think about not working for the YMCA or not being so integrally connected to it. It really is my family, my second home.”

Foerman jumped at the opportunity to work at Dye-Clay. She said she grew up in the area, closer to Baker County, because her grandparents had a farm out there. She’s now a rural woman herself, and she said Clay County is great at being rural with a touch of urban. Dye-Clay has been her home since Sept. 28 and she doesn’t see an end in sight.

She said the Dye-Clay location offers a more familiar touch than any of the other locations in her career. She’s excited to extend a warm welcome to members. One of the unique facets of this Orange Park branch is the DayStar program, which is a one-of-a-kind program for adults with disabilities.

She said not to call it a daycare though because it is so much more. It’s a goal-oriented classroom of sorts that helps its members realize their goals and needs, and actualize them accordingly. It’s about helping them meet their own individual goals, Foerman said, and the staff that works there are true heroes.

The Dye-Clay location is also home to a pool, a large soccer field, basketball courts, a full wellness center and gym, a teen center, the KidZone and it’s the headquarters of the YMCA’s before and after-school programs.

“It’s truly a gem here in Clay County,” Foerman said. “I’m so excited to dig in here even more and build relationships with everyone. It’s about serving our members however best we can and that’s our goal right now and always.”

“It’s about that impact that we and our location can make on their lives. That’s what keeps me in the Y family all these years later. It’s impacted my life in immeasurable ways. It’s who I am. The YMCA runs in my blood and I’m here to bring that impact to others.”