Ymca

EVERY DAY, 2,500 people pour into the Green Hills Family YMCA to lift weights, shoot hoops and swim. Scott Reall believes many are searching for salvation. On a recent evening, as disco music blared out of an aerobics room down the hall, Reall led a small group in prayer. Heads bowed, hands clasped, about a dozen men and women sang "Amazing Grace."

Standing at the base of the West Coast's tallest building Friday, Mike Patatian brimmed with confidence. Seventy-five stories, 1,108 feet. About 25 minutes up a stairwell to the top of the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles. By the 30th floor, all he could think was, "I'm dead." Fifteen minutes later, he finally found himself atop the skyscraper's landmark crown, dry-heaving, coughing, sweating and flushed red.

A prominent Democratic political consultant in Sacramento has testified that he molested two boys more than 30 years ago while working at a Los Angeles-area YMCA. The admission from John Robert Stevens -- a former high-ranking advisor to Gov. Gray Davis and Assembly speakers Antonio Villaraigosa, Herb Wesson and Fabian Nunez -- came in a lawsuit accusing the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles of failing to protect two brothers from Stevens' abuse.

The gym at the Glendale YMCA was jumping on a Tuesday afternoon. Balls were flying through the air, bouncing on the ground and passing through -- or simply near -- hoops. Ripserik Isaakhanian, 71, a petite woman with styled hair and perfect makeup, tossed a volleyball in a circle with a group of other men and women, all 65 and older. A few people shot basketballs, and others raced around setting up chairs and balls in the center of the room.

A YMCA director in Chicago has been fired after parents with young children arriving for a swim meet scuffled with participants from an overnight transgender fashion show and ball. Greg Weider, who had been acting director of the New City YMCA for two years, was fired after allowing a YMCA member to reserve the entire facility for the show. The families arriving the next morning for the swim meet encountered the transgender participants and police had to be called after scuffling broke out.

Two children were hospitalized Wednesday after they were exposed to chlorine gas at a YMCA pool in Simi Valley. Six adults and 41 children were in the pool area when the maintenance accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m., said Battalion Chief Kevin Nestor, who oversees Ventura County fire stations in Simi Valley and Moorpark. Staff members of the YMCA, in the 3200 block of Cochran Street, had evacuated the pool area before fire personnel arrived.

Parents and children protested Wednesday with placards in front of an Anaheim YMCA to support a program director who was fired after staging a civil rights exercise. John Alvarez, the former director of the YMCA Program Center West on Ball Road, said he was placed on administrative leave Feb. 6 and fired March 4 because of the curriculum he developed for the after-school program in conjunction with Civil Rights Week in January.

When the Segerstrom family decided several years ago to convert the last of Santa Ana's farmland into a residential community, it offered land to the YMCA for a facility. This week, the developer family made good on its promise and signed over 2.5 acres to the organization. About 80,000 people under the age of 18 live within two miles of the planned facility, which will be constructed at Alton Avenue and Raitt Street, officials estimate.

Re "Group Loses 'Indian' in Name, Not Spirit," Dec. 1: While I think Indian Guides provides an excellent opportunity for kids to learn of ancient Indian lore while having a great time with Dad, times have changed. Therefore, I applaud the move the YMCA has made to change the name, since the only common modern reference we have to American Indians anymore is through gaming and gambling. Pat Daigh Irvine

When Molly Meyerson was in kindergarten and joined the YMCA's Indian Guides, her uncle gave her the Indian Princess patch he had received 20 years earlier when he and his daughter participated in the program. The tender moment demonstrated to Barry Meyerson, Molly's father, how the Indian Guides tradition had been passed from generation to generation.