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The La Crosse Area Family YMCA celebrated many accomplishments over the past year at its annual meeting last Thursday night.

With the opening of the YMCA North in the fall of 2007, the YMCA enjoyed a 21 percent increase in membership. The organization had more than 21,400 members at the end of 2007. Ten years ago, the YMCA had just over 5,000 members.

In addition to celebrating its growth, the YMCA honored several people for outstanding work or volunteerism. The YMCA named the Stage family of Onalaska Family of the Year.

Bill and Jenni Stage and their five children can be seen almost every day at the YMCA on Onalaska, whether socializing in the lobby, organizing some activity or running errands.

In honoring the family as the winners, Brandon Corcoran, La Crosse youth and family director, noted the Stages were exactly the kind of family the YMCA wants to promote — learning through togetherness as well as physical activity and community participation.

“They’re not perfect and we love them not perfect. Marcus has to pick up in his grades, and Ella has to learn to play with others,” Corcoran said. “They’re the typical family that we love having come to the YMCA.”

Jenni Stage is an employee of the YMCA North in the member services department and, through her role, her whole family has become involved. Bill, a subcontractor doing installation work for Charter Communication, has helped install televisions for movie nights and runs errands on a regular basis.

Marcus, the oldest at 13, spends his time in the weight room. Sabrina, 10, said gymnastics was her favorite activity. Olivia, 8, also loves gymnastics and participates in the dance classes. Lucas, 5, is more into team sports playing on the Y’s basketball and soccer teams. And little Ella, 4, is a dancer.

In addition to her family being named as family of the year, Jenni was one of two named as Employee of the Year. “I was shocked,” she said.

There were 10 nominees for the honor, and the other Employee of the Year was Eric Wojta, a part-time senior group coach for the swim team of 13-year-olds and up. He lives in West Salem and is a math teacher at Onalaska High School.

Wojta has been coaching swimming at the YMCA for 13 years, but this was the first year they had a large group of kids (13 out of 42) competing at the nationals and the first year any of the kids had actually placed in top categories, Wojta said.

“I was a little surprised because I think there are more deserving people,” Wojta said of receiving the award.

Holmen resident Marie Mitchell was the recipient of the Nancy Quinlisk Youth Development Award. The award honors a person who has volunteered an extraordinary amount of time and talent in support of youth programs at the YMCA.

Mitchell has been a volunteer at the YMCA for more than six years, starting at the Holmen Program Center assisting in fundraising and special events and has expanded her role to help with youth programs at the YMCA North. She is very involved in the dance programs, which her daughter also is involved in.

Mitchell, a stay-at-home mom with two children, said she was “very honored” to receive the award. “It was very unexpected. And I don’t like to be in the public eye. I’d rather be working behind the scenes.”

Dance is an important part of Mitchell’s family health. She said her daughter has had an orthopedic problem and the orthopedic surgeon told her that the girl’s participation in dance has probably helped her avoid surgeries that normally would face her as she grew into her teen years.