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← Back to 2006

Heart of Community Life

by Sarah O'Brien
Phil Knight, 19, often spends his time after work playing paintball with his friends, although there hasn't been much group competition of late: "Since I bought a semi-automatic, my friends don't play with us anymore." Phil actually has two semi-automatic paintball guns, so he can lend one to a friend, to level the playing field.
Mitch Diamond, 19, spends his first day as a member at the Madisonville YMCA working out in the weight room. Diamond moved from Chicago to work in his grandfather's coal mining business, and after setting himself up in a town that he enthusiastically calls "more relaxed" than his former urban home, he decided to join the Y for a bit of exercise. "Everyone knows the Y," he says, "I mean, it has everything you need."
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After a friend's birthday party, the girls locker room at the YMCA is full and the swimmers shiver while they wait for their turn to shower.
Michala Knight, 7, is not amused as she waits for her friends to clear out of the showers after a swim at the YMCA's pool.
As the assistant director at the YMCA Kids Center, Carrie Gamblin, 19, is in charge of first aid. But 4-year-old Palysia Browder wasn't running a temperature so Carrie and the teachers decided it was just a case of "the sleepies." Palysia had just woken up from her afternoon nap.
Music plays quietly in the background as Hailyn Gibson, 4, takes a 30-minute nap after a long morning of activities at the YMCA Kids' Center in Madisonville. Hailyn is part of the Butterfly Group, 4- and 5-year-olds who spend the day at the center while their parents are at work.

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