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New CLC YMCA executive director Meagan Hamblett. (Paula Roberts photo) |
By Paula Roberts
After an extensive nationwide search, the Board of Directors of the Central Lincoln County YMCA has announced Meagan Hamblett as the Y’s new CEO.
Hamblett has worked with the Boothbay Y for the past eight years, serving as their membership and marketing director.
Prior to that, she owned her own consulting business, worked as development director at St. Andrews Hospital, was campaign director at the United Way of the Greater
Seacoast in Portsmouth, and served as director of child care, marketing, and membership at the former Cumberland County YMCA, now the YMCA of Southern Maine, in Portland.
“Meagan has a strong set of core YMCA values that enable her to demonstrate and articulate the causes of our mission. She has helped build strong communities
wherever she has been, through relationship building and collaboration. She has proven her passion for the Y mission with her track record of fundraising efforts and results.
Meagan has demonstrated leadership that has led to the expansion of capital funding, annual giving, programming, and membership with our sister organization in Boothbay and
Boothbay Harbor. We expect more of the same in our community. She has the ambition, strategic vision, and experience to bring our organization to the next level of excellence.
We are fortunate to have her as our new leader at this critical time in our development,” board Chair Dennis Anderson said.
Hamblett split her time between San Diego and Maine growing up and started her college career on the West Coast before transferring to the University of Maine at
Farmington, where she received a degree in elementary education.
She taught third grade in Winthrop for one year before taking a preschool teaching position at the Greater Portland Y. She was promoted to child care director and
oversaw after-school activities. While there, she wrote and received a 21st Century Learning Grant and ran programs in all the area schools.
While at the Portland Y, she became certified in child care, membership and marketing, and fund development.
The Y wanted her to take a week-long course in principles and practices and she reluctantly went. It was there that she met her husband, current Boothbay Region YMCA
CEO Andy Hamblett. “It turned out to be the best week of my life,” Meagan Hamblett said.
She later accepted the campaign director job at the United Way of the Greater Seacoast, where she worked with YMCAs and other nonprofits. “We raised a lot of money.
The campaign was my responsibility,” Hamblett said.
Her husband Andy took a job with the Boothbay Region YMCA, and the family moved to East Boothbay. Meagan worked on the St. Andrew’s Hospital capital campaign. After
having her fourth child, she did consulting work from home for a number of years.
“When my kids were older, I got back into the Y child care,” Hamblett said. The child care had received bad reviews, and she stepped in, consulted with parents and
staff, and turned the center around.
Later, when the Boothbay school system opened free preschool child care and the Y child care numbers plummeted, Hamblett started a Montessori School at the Y (Harbor
Montessori) this fall.
Her duties at the Boothbay YMCA included child care, membership and marketing development, and overseeing the $9.5 million pool capital campaign. She also started a
girls lacrosse program and coached the team. Her husband, Andy, started a boys program. The Boothbay Y program acts as a feeder program for Lincoln Academy players. Boothbay
Region High School started a girls club team last spring.
“Our hope is to do more partnering with the Y’s,” Hamblett said. The two Y’s currently collaborate on tennis instructing, summer and team camps, swimming, and
gymnastics. Programs at the reciprocating Y are offered at member rates.
“We had this awesome 70-acre Camp Knickerbocker, and we said, ‘How do we get more kids here?'” Hamblett said of the Boothbay Y’s underused facility. CLC Y staff
bused their summer day camp kids to Camp Knickerbocker once a week last summer.
“We looked at the two communities and said, ‘What is missing?’ We are working together to provide what is missing. Teamwork is huge for me. Working together is going
to be fantastic for both Y’s and both communities,” Hamblett said.
The two Y’s also share a finance director. “It decreases expenses for both Y’s,” Hamblett said. “Program sharing works seamlessly. It has been a win-win for both
Y’s.”
“We are very excited to welcome Meagan Hamblett as the next CEO of our YMCA. She is someone who embodies the YMCA mission of youth development, healthy living, and
social responsibility,” search committee member and vice chair of the board Charlie Richardson said.
Hamblett said she is humbled and honored to be chosen as the new CEO. “This leadership position is an incredible opportunity for the next chapter of my Y career. I
am thrilled to share my expertise in the areas of fundraising, membership and program development, strategic planning, facility building, and community outreach. The YMCA is
much more than a job to me. It’s a way of life, which I embrace wholeheartedly.”
Serving on the search committee were board members Dru Sandford, Ann Poole, Charlotte Davenhill, Brian Thompson, Lurie Palino, Charlie Richardson, and Dennis
Anderson.
Meagan and Andy Hamblett live in East Boothbay with their four children, Peter, a freshman in college; Lincoln, a freshman at Boothbay Region; Helen, in eighth
grade; and Christopher, in sixth grade.
Hamblett will begin her responsibilities as the CEO Nov. 17. The Y asks everyone to stop in and welcome her to the community.
