Butler YMCA executive director Sandy Ihlenfeld is retiring from the YMCA on Sept. 27, but will continue to teach classes in cardio and strength training after leaving her administrative role. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Not many people work at the same place for decades anymore.

But, as we learned in the Thursday, Sept. 19, edition of the Butler Eagle, Sandy Ihlenfeld, executive director of the Butler YMCA, has held multiple positions over nearly 30 years with the organization. Her retirement is set for Sept. 27, but she likes the Y so much she isn’t really going anywhere.

Instead, she’s going back to her roots and will teach exercise classes, something she did in the 1990s.

Ihlenfeld has worked in Butler County and abroad, teaching both exercise classes and the instructors to lead other classes. And her dedication led her to go back to school.

In 2010 she earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Slippery Rock University and in 2014 she earned a graduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh. And she worked full-time at the YMCA while doing so.

In her time leading the organization, Ihlenfeld moved beyond exercise classes and created ongoing partnerships with other nonprofits and agencies in Butler County, including the Butler County Area Agency on Aging and VA Butler Healthcare.

“Setting up those partnerships that serve seniors and vets in Butler County, I was able to do that, and they are still active today,” she remembers.

Ihlenfeld’s co-workers will miss her, but as Christina Dreher noted, the example she’s set is going to serve them all well.

“She’s a great leader because she’s caring and she’s compassionate, but she’s tough,” Dreher said. “I also believe that she has instilled all of those things in us and that’s how her legacy will live on.”

That is a legacy worth being proud of.

— JK