By Erica Chayes Wida, Staff Writer
“The Y, our Y in Princeton, has a very rich history. When I first became involved, I thought it was just where you went to work out or swim. I’ve been amazed in positive ways,” said the Princeton YMCA’s new board chair and first female chair, Merilyn Rovira., She succeeds Paul Biondi, who will remain a member of the board of directors., Ms. Rovira joined the Y when her children, now 20 and 25, were young. While balancing her daily commutes to New York City, Ms. Rovira spent her time dropping her kids at the Y — first for daycare and swim lessons, and later for her son Tomaz’s first job as a camp counselor and daughter Natalia’s volunteer work as a tutor. In 2011, she joined the Y’s board of directors., “I became involved and saw how great Princeton is and it only deepened my role here. And part of that is there is a lot of need here in Princeton and most don’t think that, but there really is. I am really proud of the YMCA for supporting that,” Ms. Rovira said. She went on to list some of her favorite programs: a parent-infant group to help with language development; the Princeton Young Achievers for homework help and school readiness; Committed and Faithful, a mentor group for youth ages 11 to 18 that encourages social developments; Latinos en Progresso; the Livestrong Program, and more., “The great thing about our Y is when people join it doesn’t just support your gym membership, it supports real community progress,” she said., Ms. Rovira grew up in Denver, Colorado, and said she always possessed a curiosity for the world. She studied economics at the University of Colorado and then moved to Berkeley, California, to earn her master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of California, Berkeley., After finishing graduate school, Ms. Rovira took off on a plane with money she had saved to travel the world for the next two years, finally landing in New York City. When her roommate brought home a friend one day, Ms. Rovira met her husband, an urban planner named Carlos Rodrigues. Not long after they moved to Princeton, had their children, and settled into the community., Son Tomaz is now at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesee. Daughter Natalia works for Princeton in Asia, lives in Singapore, and comes back to Princeton three months a year — much to Ms. Rovira’s delight., “You want them to be bold; you want them to be excited about the world,” Ms. Rovira said enthusiastically, offering some perspective as a mother. “I think we do that at the Y — we encourage kids, mentor them, make them see their actions have consequences, and give them the opportunity to do things they may not have.”, Ms. Rovira continues to commute to New York on the train from Princeton daily, never without her water, a good book, and a bag of sustaining nuts. She enjoys the Y’s group exercise classes, such as yoga, on her evenings and weekends and balances her career as senior vice president of capital/strategic initiatives with the Community Development Trust, a national investor in affordable housing, with her duties as YMCA board chair., “I encourage everyone to come. We may look like the same old facility from the street but we have done a partial renovation, which helped enormously,” she said. “Come by and take a look.”
