New YMCA CEO Ready to Serve All of Anderson

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

Kevin Osborne arrived in Anderson with the kind of enthusiasm that can make a person sound either newly hired or newly converted. Since March 1, he has been the new chief executive of the Anderson Area YMCA, a place he now describes with the sort of pride usually reserved for a hometown team or a family heirloom.

Osborne came here from Cleveland County, North Carolina, where he spent 17, and before that nearly a decade at YMCAs in Statesville and Hickory. The move, he said, was the result of a great deal of looking, thinking, and, in his words, “secret shopping”—first with his son in November, then with his wife in December. By the time he was interviewed in January, he had already fallen for the place.

Osborne, who has worked in YMCAs for 27, said he started in 2000 at the Statesville YMCA as assistant program director, running after-school programs, summer camp, Youth and Government, and Leaders Club. He later moved to Hickory, where he served as sports director, operations director, and associate executive, before taking a job with the Shelby Y, where he rose over time from executive director to senior executive to vice-president. The trajectory, as he told it, felt less like a climb than a steady confirmation that he had landed where he was supposed to be.

What first drew him to the YMCA, Osborne said, was the “Big C” Christian mission. He described himself as someone who tries to “wear my C on my sleeve,” and said he values both the faith foundation and the Y’s stated openness to everyone. The combination matters to him, as does another, more practical feature: the flexibility. He spoke appreciatively of the odd hours—night events, weekends, 5K races—that come with the job, then added that the schedule has also let him show up for his children’s school events and family obligations.

He also spoke with obvious pleasure about sports, which he has loved since childhood in Iredell County, near Statesville, in a small town called Union Grove. He played baseball, tackle football, basketball, and, he admitted, not much soccer.

He is not, by his own account, the most gifted athlete, but he loves both playing and watching sports, and he sees that as central to the Y’s appeal. One of his favorite memories, he said, was coaching as a volunteer and watching his son score his first soccer goals, raising his hand in celebration, and later seeing his daughter play volleyball.

His son is now 21 and a junior in college; his daughter is 18 and will graduate in May. Osborne’s family remains in Kings Mountain for the moment, though he said they will move to be with him in June, after his wife, a schoolteacher, finishes the school year. For now, he is commuting on weekends.

As for Anderson itself, Osborne said what struck him was the warmth. He described the people as friendly and welcoming, much like the smaller communities he knows in North Carolina. During his visits, he said, members greeted him, staff were engaging, and people even waved when he was out exercising behind the Y. The area’s growth also caught his attention, and he said that possibility matters because it could mean growth for the YMCA as well, perhaps in other parts of the county.

The Anderson YMCA, he noted, is more than the building itself. There are fields, after-school sites, and a presence that extends well beyond the front doors. Osborne said one immediate priority will be a strategic plan, something the board specifically raised during the interview process. He also mentioned board governance and personnel policies as early areas of attention. Longer term, he said, he would like to see the Y expand beyond its current footprint, perhaps even through a branch elsewhere in the county. At the moment, the organization already reaches 14 after-school sites and runs summer camp again at Lake Hartwell, through Duckworth and Tucker.

That reach, Osborne said, depends increasingly on partnerships. One of the things that excites him most as the new CEO is “the power of partnership,” especially the YMCA’s work with AnMed and Anderson School District 5. Those collaborations, he said, are essential to the mission, because they allow the Y to run the after-school programs within local school districts and support students and families in the places where they already live their daily lives. In his view, the partnerships let the organization extend its reach beyond what any one institution could do alone, and help position the community for better health, education, and overall well-being.

He said his first few weeks have also been a crash course in relationships with local leaders. By the end of his fourth week, he estimated, he had met 32 people, and he set himself the goal of reaching 50 in 50 days or 90 in 90. His impression so far was simple: people love Anderson.

They may disagree about how best to get things done, he said, but they share a deep affection for the place and a strong interest in its future. He added, with a laugh, that when someone mentioned “which side of the tracks” he came from, he told them he had a passport and could go anywhere in the county.

Would he become a regular working out at the Y himself? He said he plans to, though he confessed that after working from eight in the morning to seven at night, he is often too tired to do much once he gets home. Still, he has been walking through neighborhoods, spending time in the community, and has even tried the treadmill. He said he needs to do better.

Osborne also said he hopes eventually to serve on local boards or committees and get involved beyond the YMCA. The Y, after all, asks the community for volunteers, donations, capital support, and scholarships; it ought, he said, to give back as well. He has already been invited to speak at a couple of events and has been impressed by the way some of the staff are already involved in leadership programs and local committees. The organization, he said, should be more than “four walls.”

If there was a single note he returned to again and again, it was pride—pride in the YMCA’s history, pride in its scope, pride in the fact that it serves “all people.” He said the Anderson Y, which he believes dates to 1949 and perhaps earlier in another form, is one of the things the community ought to feel good about. After 17 years in one place and 27 in the field, he said, he has seen in YMCAs in Texas, Philadelphia, Chicago, and elsewhere, but this one in Anderson feels especially alive. It is, he said, a “booming, booming YMCA.”