Insurance Expenses Halt YMCA Program for Troubled Youths

Rising insurance premiums have canceled a national YMCA program that takes troubled youngsters off the streets and puts them on off-road mini-bikes.

The national headquarters of the Young Men’s Christian Assn. told 110 program centers in 33 states to cancel further activities and lock up the mini-bikes by Friday.

“Our negotiators are still hoping to put something together,” said Solon B. Cousins, the YMCA’s national executive director. “But at this stage we have to notify all of the deadline.”

Since 1969, American Honda Motor Co. has contributed 15,000 minibikes, as well as cash grants, training films and service clinics, to the YMCA National Youth Project Using Mini-bikes, or Y-NYPUM.

“With current rates, most insurance carriers would require Y-NYPUM chapters to pay $210 per mini-bike,” Cousins said. “That’s up 320% from the previous rates.”