03-03-2025
CEO Blew In With The Hurricane, But Passion Drives Him At YMCA Of Greenville
Everyone has a YMCA memory – or so it seems to Sam Franklin. And he wants to hear them all.
'It's fascinating that every person I talk to has some sort of Y story in their lives, learning to swim, camp, sports, basketball, something,' says Franklin, President and CEO of the YMCA of Greenville.
'People are passionate about the Y and how it's impacted them. That's what we want to do; we want to make sure that anyone and everyone gets the opportunity to have a Y experience.'
Franklin, himself, is unabashedly passionate.
'I latched onto the Y's mission early. I saw the outreach we did in neighborhoods and communities. I saw something that I wanted to do. Here I am, all these years later, now able to cast my vision for what I want this YMCA to be,' he says.
During his senior year at Middle Tennessee State University near Nashville, Franklin interned in the marketing department at the local YMCA. After graduation, he called the marketing director and asked for a job.
Franklin took a job working the front desk, in theory, until he could find something else. 'Lo and behold, here I am 33 years later. It's the only job I've ever had. I fell in love with it.'
He moved on to YMCAs in Kentucky and North Carolina. And in 2017, he joined the YMCA of Greenville, the largest Y in South Carolina with 11 sites that serve more than 80,000 people each year.
When Scot Baddley retired in September after 20 years at the helm of the YMCA of Greenville, the Board of Directors unanimously promoted Franklin from his post as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer to the top job.
Franklin started his new position only four days before Hurricane Helene devastated the Carolinas, including YMCA Camp Greenville and the Fred W. Symmes Chapel, known as Pretty Place.
The Y staff jumped into action, Franklin says.
'I was proud of the team,' he says. 'The first texts or phone calls I got were from staff asking, 'Where do you need me?' 'I can get out. Do you need me to check on something?' 'How do we get to Camp Greenville?' 'How do we help?'
'That's a culture that's been built, and it permeates our association here at the YMCA of Greenville.'
The YMCA of Greenville has 105 full-time staff, 1,100 part-time staff in the summer, and countless volunteers.
'We are one Y with one mission, and we're one team,' Franklin says.
Pretty Place reopened Jan. 3. 'Camp Greenville should be ready to go by June, so all of the kiddos can be back on the mountain,' he says.
Camp Greenville was established in 1912. It was moved in 1925 to its current location, on 1,400 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about an hour from Cherrydale Point in Greenville. The camp's chapel, Pretty Place, is open to the public and hosts about 550 weddings each year.
A few YMCA staff members and their families live at the camp year-round; 10,000 children participate in camp activities during the summer, Franklin says.
The hurricane tore away much of the roof at the open-air Pretty Place and destroyed rows of seating and some crossbeams.
'The damage was bad,' Franklin says. But when engineers arrived, they found no major structural issues. They replaced the roof, along with the bench-type seating. Crews also performed maintenance while the chapel was closed to visitors.
It could have been worse. A tropical storm several years ago cracked the front, horizontal support beam. Experts suggested then that the wooden beam be replaced with a steel beam.
'The engineers told us that if we had not, the whole structure would have been destroyed. That steel beam took the brunt of the hurricane. It cost a lot of money to put in that steel beam. But it worked out,' Franklin says.
A Bible verse is etched on the beam. 'I will lift up my eyes to the hills': Psalm 121.
After approximately $550,000 in repairs, Pretty Place reopened to about 300 visitors during the first weekend.
At Camp Greenville, the staff and their families were safe. The main issue was downed trees – some of which fell on cabins and other structures. YMCA crews with chainsaws worked for four days to clear enough space for a vehicle to make its way down the 4-mile-long Camp Greenville Road.
'That tells you how many trees ... when you're running a chainsaw cutting trees from across the road … four miles is a long way,' Franklin says.
It's estimated that 1,100 trees were downed on the Camp Greenville property, Franklin says. Insurance will cover some costs, but not all. Removing the trees and making repairs at Camp Greenville will cost about $750,000, he says.
People may donate to the repairs through the Camp Greenville website. More volunteer work crews will be organized when the weather improves.
'As we get further down the road, and it's safer, groups can come up. A lot of alumni have volunteered. Church groups helped clean debris,' Franklin says.
Beyond the storm damage, the YMCA of Greenville hopes to raise $1.6 million during its 2025 Annual Campaign.
Donations to the Annual Campaign stay in the community and provide financial assistance to children, adults and families so that they can take part in YMCA programs – including wellness and sports activities; swim lessons; S.C. Youth in Government and leadership development; after-school care, preschool and summer day camps; and deliveries to those experiencing food insecurity in Greenville County.
Over the past 15 years, the YMCA of Greenville has raised more than $14 million during its annual campaigns.
'We want to make sure that people understand that the Y is here for anyone,' Franklin says. 'We are a nonprofit charitable organization, and we never turn anyone away because of an inability to pay for a program or service or a membership,' he says.
Franklin says he wants the YMCA of Greenville to expand its services into 'communities that need us. I want us to be forward-thinking about how we come into communities and serve more people.
'We want everyone to be a part of our Y family.'
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Passion Drives New CEO To Share Mission, Activities At YMCA Of Greenville
