Dear Editor:

I admit to confusion regarding YMCA Board and member Andrew Morley's response to Brian McDonald's concern about our YMCA's position on pricing-out participation by our area's young people.

As I read McDonald's letter, it simply stated let's make membership and participation affordable for all our young people without either additional charge for special programs or proof of income by producing a copy of the parent's income tax return.

Certainly, if the number of cars in the parking lot of the Y virtually every morning during school months is any indication, its annual budget is not dependent on membership fees from those youngsters. And if a family wants mom and dad to also enjoy the benefits of membership, then by all means collect a family membership fee.

I think Morley's response was more as a board member, feeling he had to defend board policy, than as a Y member appreciating the opportunity that our philanthropic senior-dominated population has offered (as McDonald summarized) all the youth of our community that the Y in YMCA stands for in the first place. 

Dennis C. Brown
Villa Rica, Ga.
and Boothbay