It was in 1971, that our founder, the late Ralph J. Stolle, first saw an unfilled need for a community space built on the mission to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. He sought the help of other local business leaders – George Henkle, Charles Hamilton, Ellis Thompson, Neil Armstrong, Marvin Young, Mike Norris– to come up with a solution. Ralph and his group visited 27 YMCAs before opening the doors to Countryside YMCA in 1978.

We are tasked with serving over 200,000 people in Warren County, and we recognized that in order to serve more of these people we would have to take Countryside YMCA into other locations. In 2007, we opened a small facility in Deerfield Township; in 2013 we partnered with Otterbein Retirement Community and opened a facility in their Life Enrichment Center; in 2016 we purchased a building in Maineville for childcare. What’s most valuable to us, however, is the fact that we’ve grown from serving 1,214 charter families to currently serving 8,500 families.