The Huntington YMCA is a community service organization located in Huntington, NY. The YMCA is a focal point of the Huntington community and a destination for families, seniors, adults, and teens. The YMCA serves over 10,000 members with 220 preschool children, 600 campers, and over 5,000 families.  

Like most business, the YMCA was hit hard by the pandemic, but is steadily recovering. Now more than ever, families are looking for activities for their children and National Grid recognizes that. The YMCA has been traditionally instrumental in filling this need with swim lessons, sports programs, preschool, school aged childcare, camp and more. With National Grid’s help the YMCA will be able to offer more.

In December of 2022, National Grid awarded the Huntington YMCA a $25,000 Project C grant through the Clean Energy and Sustainability Pillar to create the National Grid Outdoor Education Center. Education through nature and the outdoors is an important and necessary experience that is critical to learning.

Research shows that young children and teens benefit from time that is spent outdoors. Experts in the field of education have found that when students are learning outside, they eat better, sleep better, and have fewer behavioral problems. Outdoor classrooms and nature-based areas of exploration fosters students to become autonomous thinkers, promotes creativity, teaches problem solving, facilities conflict resolution, and allows for language development. Engaging in the natural world promotes the important behaviors and traits of empathy, respect, cooperation, kindness, and patience. Furthermore, education investigation and discovery learning skills.

Researchers have found that K-12 students who are learning in an outdoor environment through the school year do better on standardized tests in math, reading, writing, the sciences, and social studies. Outdoor learning spaces are designed to stimulate children’s critical thinking and enhances the sense of wonder and curiosity. Children and young adults who are engaged in outdoor education are more to engage in positive environmental behaviors and become stewards in helping to protect our planet earth in the future.

The National Grid Outdoor Education Center fosters a sense of community engagement and builds stronger YMCA students, teachers, faculty, families, and communities. With its completion of the outdoor center this year, over 10,000 Long Island community members will now have access to the National Grid Outdoor Education Center.

About National Grid

National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York and Massachusetts. National Grid is focused on building a smarter, stronger, cleaner energy future — transforming our networks with more reliable and resilient energy solutions to meet state climate goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.