When Gary Kiev was thinking about relocating to Virginia, he had the Waynesboro YMCA on his mind.
“I have a stepson and his family, some grandkids, and I’d come down here with my wife, and we’d stay with them on vacation, and when we were here, we’d come to the Y to work out,” said Kiev, who was struck as a visitor in those days by the positivity of the staff.
The Kievs finally made the call to move to Afton, a few miles east of Waynesboro, in 2014.
“The idea of having the Y here was a positive force when we were thinking through the move. I just enjoyed being here. I like to exercise. I liked talking with people here. That was a positive thing for us,” said Kiev, a retired registered nurse.
A focal point at the outset of their time in Virginia for Kiev was nursing himself back to health. Not long after settling in Virginia, Kiev had to undergo surgeries to replace his left shoulder and left knee.
“I was pretty much bent over,” said Kiev, who worked with Y fitness team leader George Goodloe on a plan to get ready for the surgeries from a fitness standpoint, then redoubled those efforts in rehab stints after the surgeries.
“It’s really helped my posture. It’s helped me mentally, psychologically. It’s definitely helped me emotionally. It’s just given me more life,” Kiev said.
Now back to good health, Kiev works out in the gym and the water exercise program three days a week.
“The Y radiates positivity to me, the people that I work with, the people at the front desk. I try to radiate it back,” Kiev said. “There’s a sharing that comes about, and when there’s a sharing, everybody benefits from it. I like that. That’s really a positive thing.”
Story by Chris Graham
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