What do early childhood education, pickleball, and real estate market updates have in common?
This episode of the 'Live Your Best Life Barefoot' Podcast!
Our host Mary and Ruth have a great update on predictions for the 2022 Real Estate market, and sit down with Angel Cerritos, Executive Director of the Bonita Springs YMCA.
Also, we are hosting a Fall Festival with proceeds benefiting the YMCA. Find out more about our event, on Saturday, November 13th on our Facebook page!
To find out more about the YMCA and how you can help go to the link below
or call 239-221-7560
http:// www.ymcaswfl.org
Also here is the link for a great article about the market Mary talked about
https://pulsenomics.com/surveys/
https://pulsenomics.com/surveys/#home-price-expectations
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
What do early childhood education, pickleball, and real estate market updates have in common?
This episode of the 'Live Your Best Life Barefoot' Podcast!
Our host Mary and Ruth have a great update on predictions for the 2022 Real Estate market, and sit down with Angel Cerritos, Executive Director of the Bonita Springs YMCA.
Also, we are hosting a Fall Festival with proceeds benefiting the YMCA. Find out more about our event, on Saturday, November 13th on our Facebook page!
To find out more about the YMCA and how you can help go to the link below
or call 239-221-7560
http:// www.ymcaswfl.org
Also here is the link for a great article about the market Mary talked about
https://pulsenomics.com/surveys/
https://pulsenomics.com/surveys/#home-price-expectations
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Realty & Property Management
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
Welcome to the live your best life barefoot podcast with your host, Mary Mouritsen and the team at Barefoot Bungalow Realty
Speaker 2:Welcome to our next episode of live your best life barefoot. I'm here with Ruth. Good morning I'm Mary and I just wanted to do a quick market update. I read a fascinating article by pulsenomics, and it answered a lot of the questions that everybody's having about our market. Number one, we have had 114 straight months of increase. It's huge, right? Yeah. Right. And so what this means for us is that we've probably hit our peak, but so year over year, we usually go up about 5%, 5.9% here in Southwest Florida, especially, we've gone up 19.4% in 2021. We went up 19.4%. So what the projections are with this pulsenomics is that in 2022, we're going to drop back down to increasing by 5.8%. So the difference between appreciating slowly and our market dropping is the big factor here that we need to pay attention to. They're not predicting a market drop. They're predicting that we're going to go, we're going to stay where we're at, and then we're going to go back to our normal acceleration increases. So I thought that was fascinating. That's a great article. Yeah. So we'll post a link to that very good in our podcast notes. So anyway, we are excited today to have Angel Cerritos from the Y M C A he's in the B onita Springs YMCA and he is joining us. We're excited to have him tell us a little bit about what the Y MCA h ere does and a little bit about himself.
Speaker 3:Yes. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so I'm Angel Cerritos, I'm the executive director for the Bonita Springs YMCA, located off of T erry and Kent road, h ere in Bonita. And we do a little bit of everything. You know, last year we opened up our early learning center. So now we're able to provide early childhood education to children as young as six weeks old, all the way to five years and our goal is to implement a very robust curriculum to get them to kindergarten ready. In addition to that, you know, we have our fitness facility where we offer a plethora of group exercise classes, f i tness center, we' ve got eight pickleball courts for not only our members, but for the community come and use them and join our pickleball clinics as well as our leagues that we i ns tituted since last year. And then we also have our youth sports ranging from soccer, basketball, we've got volleyball clinics. And we're very excited this year we're looking at the opportunity to start adults, sp o rts, whi c h could potentially be soccer, basketball, maybe one additional one, and then we've got
Speaker 2:So, uh, leagues like adult leagues.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. So we're excited for that. And then we've got an outdoor heated pool where it's available to, again, our members, as well as the community. So a little bit of everything we, we like to call it a one-stop shop for, you know, health, wellness, and fitness, for kids as well as adults and anyone that wants to come and join us. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. So tell us about how you ended up in this position.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my career began I was I started with the Y in Sterling, Virginia and the Northern Virginia area as a part-time afterschool group leader, working with school- aged children, supporting them with their homework, s ports and an other a ctivities. And gradually got more and more involved with the Y got a ch ance t o see the bigger impact in w hat we did beyond just our location in our county. You know, we re a p art of a larger association and then learn more about, you know, the impact nationwide, a nd then a full-time opportunity came about. And I was so pleased to be able to get that opportunity and gradually was able to continue to ascend in my career. You know, after a few years I saw the potential of being able to make it a natural career, not just a job and just love the mission and the fact that we help everyone, regardless of their inability to pay. And 17 years later, n o w I'm here in the Bonita Springs area, w o rked for about 15 years in the Northern Virginia area with the Y t h ere. And then almost two years now, h a d the opportunity to come here to Bonita Springs and joined the, the Bon ita Springs team with the YMCA of Southwest Florida. And I'm lov ing every minute of it.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. Very rewarding. Yeah. So tell us about some stories or maybe experiences that you've had that have really impacted you in your job or career, I should say,
Speaker 3:Impacted myself or, you know, stories in regards to the impact that we've had on families,
Speaker 2:Um, the impact you've had on our community and on the families.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So
Speaker 2:Both would be great.
:Well, the, I got a couple of examples. Um, so in Virginia, you know, one of the things that really stands out is, there was a gentleman that went through the YMCA summer camp program. It was an outdoor camp that provided so many opportunities for kids to explore, learn, build character, meet new friends. That individual eventually grew up and went on to school and came back at the Y at the branch that we in Leesburg, Virginia to volunteer. He provided some support in our fundraising event or gala, eventually he became a board member and became our board chair. So wonderful to see the full circle of being a participant, a volunteer, then eventually a board chair for the YMCA. And then here locally, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:It really does make an impact
Speaker 3:Right now. It's, it's wonderful to see, you know, that yeah. We're able to provide different opportunities where participants want to come back and give back. Yeah. and, and here locally, you know, 2020 provides so many challenges and we're really stands out as a fact that, you know, the Y depends, not no matter the challenges that we face, we adapt and pivot to serve the community based on the needs. So last year, you know, when schools closed because of the shutdown, you know, children relied heavily on school lunches and breakfasts. The Y partnered with the school system to be a food pickup site. So families in our local communities can come to the Y to pick up those foods that they counted on each day during the week. So that's, you know, very powerful, you know, I've been so happy to be part of an organization that provides that type of service to the community, especially in dire needs. And for me, you know I was becoming a very young dad at that time, j oined the Y you know, as an afterschool group leader. And wasn't sure, you know, what, where I would be, you know, years down the road, the Y prov ided so many opportunities to, in training and development and, you know, the Y provided a career. And additionally, you know, with the p art nership that they had, you know, I was able to get a scholarship to complete my bachelor's in business management, whi l e working, being a dad. And so, you kn ow, very thankful for the opportunity and the investment that the Y has had on me.
Speaker 2:That is so remarkable. Very cool. Tell us about, how are there any tips or information that you think it's crucial for our listeners to have about what you do and the services that you offer?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so definitely, you know, you have to come check us out at the Bonita Springs, YMCA, as I mentioned, one stop shop for everything, sports, pickleball, group classes, k ids programs, and then our services are available to all. So if you can afford them, that is wonderful. You know, we're here for you, but if you have financial hardships, we are here for you as well. Thanks to the support of sponsors, donors, volunteers, a nd our staff. We're able to provide scholarships to those families that can't afford the full fees. And we have an application and we support you based on your household needs so that you have an opportunity at building a healthy lifestyle, b eing able to build a healthy mind, body and spirit, which is what the YMCAs about. And then a few other tips. I think personally, I you know, being in, Southwest Florida f or now for, i t'll be soon to be two years. You have to check out the sunsets at B onita Beach road. They're just mesmerizing and once you see one, i t's not the same, so you have to co me b ack. We, as a family, we do that often, yo u know, sometimes once a week or twice, i f time allows. And then you got to try out Ton y Sa c cos pi zza in Estero tha t bo ss is really good, but la s t we e k
Speaker 2:We haven't tried it yet. It's really good. Oh, those are excellent tips. I love them. Angel, how do people volunteer?
Speaker 3:Well, they, you know, you can contact us, walk into our facility, in, you know, speak to one of our staff to learn other different opportunities. You can also go to our website at www.ymcaswfl.org, and then click the volunteer, tab. A nd t hen y ou'll be able to see the Bonita Springs branch and see all the different opportunities where you can volunteer, ranging from helping, to read to kids, tutoring, to support in p i ckleball y outh sports, o r our fundraising events. You know, we put together a committee to help us coo rdinate it an d raise funds to give out scholarships.
Speaker 2:Okay. That is great. And then one last thing, we are excited to have you join us so we can help raise some money at our fall Fest. We're having a fall Fest on November 13th. And we're go ing t o h ave some giveaways that we are doing raffle tickets for, and those proceeds will go to the YM CA. So tell us a little bit about if people come out and help support that, what does that look like fo r s upporting you and where do those funds go?
Speaker 3:Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for selecting the Bonita Springs, YMCAs that beneficiary. We greatly appreciate it. You know, as I mentioned earlier, before, you know, the work that we do, being able to provide financial scholarships to families so that they build a healthy mind, body and spirit, is only possible thanks to the support of our local community, you know, our volunteers, our staff, but individuals just like yourself, you know, seeing that the Y has a great impact in our community and selecting as a beneficiary. So those proceeds will go to the scholarship fund. So if a child, you know, needs early childhood education, and it's a working parent, single parent that, you know, is struggling to make ends meet, u m, those scholarships will help pay for those services so that, the family, the p arent can work and provide for their child and use their limited resources for, y ou k now, food and shelter. We also have individuals, older adults, who have hardships and they may have, Parkinson's disease, the Y offers, two programs, one rock steady boxing, which uses boxing to needs to all those techniques h elp to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, as well as, yeah, I mean, it's, it's phenomenal, e specially if you are consistently attending, and then we also have our pedaling for Parkinson's program as well, you know that also has proven to reduce the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. So individuals who have those hardships for those services wi ll r eceive scholarships as well.
Speaker 2:That is so amazing. I had no idea. Yeah. I had no idea I'm going to have to call my brother-in-law. He has Parkinson's so that's really good information.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And we're relaunching our rock steady boxing program. We were very thankful we received a grant from the Parkinson's foundation. So we're able to purchase new equipment. It was just installed last week. So we're going to do a launch i n t he next week and we're excited for it.
Speaker 2:That is so exciting, great stuff, really exciting stuff. Well, thank you Angel so much for being here with us. We're excited to do the Fall Fest with you, and we look forward to all the great things, the YMCAs providing us. Let's give the information again, of how they can reach out and help volunteer or donate.
Speaker 3:Yeah so you can reach us at our phone number at(239) 221-7560 or our website www.ymcaswfl.org, and just select the Bonita Springs branch. And you'll see all of our information and thank you so much for having me really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Angel. We're excited to see you on the 13th. Yes, yes. Come see us on the 13th and our parking lot at 9200 Bonita Beach Road. See you there. Thanks everyone. Have a wonderful day and remember to Live your Best life Barefoot thank you for listening to the
Speaker 1:Live your Best Life Barefoot podcast, sponsored by Barefoot Bungalow Realty to learn more about Barefoot Bungalow Realty go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.