The Blue Ridge family could not be more excited about the recent good news from some of our staff. This summer we celebrated an engagement, a baby and a wedding!
Cupid’s arrow struck food service’s Kyle Winters and one of our international staff from Columbia, Gaby Chavez last summer. The couple kept in touch and after several visits to South America for Kyle and another summer spent at Blue Ridge for Gaby, Kyle proposed! He will move to Columbia to teach English next month. Blessings of love, joy and good fortune to Kyle and Gaby as they begin a life together!
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Next, congratulations to Grounds Manager Travis Silver and wife Michelle as they welcomed a healthy baby boy to the world! We wish the Silvers all the best with the start of their new family. What a beautiful bundle of joy!
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. – Psalm 127:3
Lastly, best wishes and congratulations to Program Coordinator Andrew McKinney and Event Coordinator Beth Snook on tieing the knot at the North Carolina Arboretum in August. The couple recently returned from their honeymoon in Costa Rica, just in time to prepare for our busy fall season. We are so happy and excited for this lovely duo and wish them years of prosperity and happiness for the life ahead!
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. – Proverbs 5:18-19
We want to know…What’s YOUR Blue Ridge love story? Did you meet or fall in love with your sweetheart on the mountain? Would you like your story to be preserved in the Blue Ridge archives for eternity? Then become a part of our Marriage Roster!
The Marriage Roster is a book commemorating all of the couples who met at Blue Ridge Assembly. So far 17 couples, from the 1920s to the 1980s, have been listed in the book, but we are confident there are more of you out there! If you would like your names added to the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly Marriage Roster, please write Melissa Logan, Development Director, at mblogan@ymcabra.org with your information or simply reply as a comment in this blog post.
Share your love story with us: your maiden name, how you met on the mountain, as well as the date and location of your wedding. If you were visiting the Assembly as a guest, please specify which conference you were a part of, and if you were part of our staff, which department you served in. We’d also enjoy hearing any updates on how you and your family are doing today!
Again, best wishes and congratulations to all of the sweethearts we have united. We hope that YMCA Blue Ridge will continue to touch lives and bring people together in faith and fellowship in the years to come.
My wife and I met on the mountain. We worked together from 1988-89. Tim Jordan and Alice Martin Jordan.
Thank you, Tim! We will be sure to add you to the list. Blessings!
My husband and I met on the mountain at BRLS 1998. We got married in June 2002 in Richmond,Va. We have a 5 year old daughter, Emily Grace. Brandon Vaughan and Amy Cushnie Vaughan
Amy and Brandon, thank you for being a part of the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly Marriage Roster. Your love story is beautiful!
We met at Blue Ridge the summer of 1984. Arletta Raley, a prominent SC Tv producer started a music group that summer to work as staffers and also entertain conferences. Tony and I were both fresh out of high school — he hailed from the town of Jefferson and I came from Irmo. It was pretty much love at first sight for both of us. I especially loved Tony’s outgoing personality and no one could sing like him. He starred in our production of Carousel and throughout the years that followed I could still hear him sing “If I Loved You “. We went our separate ways after that summer, but we still kept in touch over the years. And even though we both went on to live separate lives, 15 years after we first met — after both of us had gone through divorces in our first marriages –we tracked each other down and got married! That Blue Ridge Magic has always stayed with us and we just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary (but we like to count 28 since that’s how long we’ve loved each other!).
Tony and Beth, thank you for sharing! What a wonderful story. We will add this posting to the Marriage Roster. Congratulations on 10 years and counting!
Domenick Risola and Keena Meyer met and worked together as camp counselors in the summer of 1992, and have been together ever since. 20 years and two kids later still going strong, and we still reminisce about our summer of love; climbing Chimney Top together, pillow fights while on housekeeping detail at Weatherford Hall, and first kisses at the bonfire at the end of summer…our kids are tired of hearing how romantic the Blue Ridge mountains can be when you’re 18 and fall in love for the first time, and then get married and stay together…it does still happen, folks!
Beautiful story, Domenick! Thank you for sharing!