Cassidy Murphy gathers with friends, colleagues and community partners at Y Splash in support of the YMCA of Northern Colorado. Cassidy serves on the YMCA board as part of her commitment to investing her time and talents in the local community.
By Cassidy Murphy | Generosity Estate Planning
There are a lot of ways to support the community you call home. For me, one of those ways is serving on the board of the YMCA of Northern Colorado.
What I value most about the experience is getting to see just how deeply the Y reaches into our community.
It’s easy to think of the YMCA as a place to swim, work out or send your kids to camp. But behind those familiar programs is an organization working every day to help children, families and individuals feel supported, connected and able to thrive.
Recently, Michael and I had the opportunity to attend Y Splash alongside friends and colleagues from Generosity Wealth Management and our broader community.
I was there as a board member and supporter—not as part of the event planning team—which meant I had the chance to simply experience the evening, celebrate the work being done and spend time with people who also care deeply about strengthening our communities.
Our table brought together quite a group: Michael and me; Autumn Davidson and her guest; Sara Russell; Sergii, who was visiting from Ukraine; Doug Gardner of Boulder–Vinnytsia Sister City; and our dear friend and fellow Boulder Rotarian Marty Evans.
And as I looked around the table that evening, I realized how many different kinds of service and community were represented in one place.
Michael Brady, Cassidy Murphy with Ukrainian partner Sergii and Doug Gardner of Boulder–Vinnytsia Sister City at Y Splash—bringing together relationships rooted in local service, international friendship and a shared commitment to stronger communities.
Different Communities, Shared Purpose
Having Sergii with us made the evening especially meaningful.
Only days earlier, he had been in Ukraine helping make Camp Dreamland possible for children living through war. Now he was in Colorado, surrounded by people gathering to support an organization serving children and families here in our own community.
The circumstances couldn’t be more different, but the underlying idea felt very familiar:
Strong communities are built when people choose to invest in one another.
Sometimes that investment is financial. Sometimes it means serving on a board or volunteering your expertise. It can mean making an introduction, advocating for something you believe in, attending an event or simply helping more people understand why the work matters.
Most often, meaningful change takes some combination of all of those things.
That’s one of the things I appreciate about being involved with the YMCA. There isn’t only one way to participate or one kind of person the organization serves. The Y creates opportunities for people to find connection, support and community in ways that meet them where they are.
Why I Choose to Serve
For me, serving on the YMCA of Northern Colorado board is one way I can contribute to the community that has given our family so much.
“What I love about the YMCA is that there are so many different ways it shows up for people. You might first think about swimming or summer camp, but its impact reaches so much further than that. I wanted to be involved with an organization that helps people feel connected and supported at different stages of their lives—and serving on the board gives me an opportunity to contribute my time and perspective to that work.”
— Cassidy Murphy
Serving also gives me the opportunity to better understand the needs around us. That’s something I think can be easy to miss when we’re moving through our own busy lives.
Events like Y Splash bring those needs—and the people working to meet them—into the same room.
Generosity Looks Different for Everyone
At Generosity Wealth Management, we spend a lot of time talking about what it means to live generously. An evening like this is a reminder that generosity doesn’t have to look the same for everyone. Michael’s work with Frontier Horizon takes him around the world. My service with the YMCA gives me an opportunity to invest more deeply in our local community. The people who joined us that evening each have causes, organizations and communities that matter to them.
There isn’t one right way to do it.
What matters is deciding what you care about and considering what you have available to contribute—whether that’s your time, financial resources, professional expertise, relationships or simply your willingness to show up.
And none of us has to change an entire community on our own.
We simply have to decide where we can contribute and take the next step.
An Evening Worth Celebrating
I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve the YMCA of Northern Colorado and for everyone who made Y Splash such a meaningful evening.
I’m also grateful that Michael and I were able to share it with friends and colleagues whose own commitments to service stretch from right here in Northern Colorado to communities thousands of miles away. Different organizations. Different communities. Different ways of giving. But ultimately, a shared belief that we each have something we can contribute.
Because living generously isn’t about supporting one particular cause. It’s about choosing to use what you have to help make something better.
And there are countless ways to begin.