HADLEY — One evening years ago at a Young Life Camp in the Adirondack Mountains, Dave Wintsch and the merry band of teenagers under his watch walked into a dining hall to big bowls of spaghetti and sauce, but not a single utensil.

It was a recipe for disaster, and, as Wintsch recalls it, a whole lot of fun.

“It’s a mess! Kids were chucking spaghetti,” Wintsch said. “Kids like to laugh, and I think there’s a sense of community that’s developed when they’re laughing together.”

Wintsch, who was named the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s 2025 Person of the Year on Thursday, has always felt a strong connection to his faith as a Christian, but it’s really the joy that inspired him to start a Hampshire County chapter of Young Life more than 30 years ago. The regional group is a nondenominational Christian organization that aims to build youths’ self-esteem and sense of social responsibility.

For the two decades before that, starting in 1974, Wintsch was part of four other Christian-based youth organizations, from The Navigators to Boston’s Park Street Church, but each group’s rules, he said, built more barriers between teenagers and the religious community rather than broke them down.

Young Life was different. Wintsch could crack jokes with teenagers around late-night campfires. The group would sing popular secular songs together rather than religious ones. Camps had “smoking pits” and allowed bikinis. He, along with Young Life Area Director Lauren Hadorn, helped kids plan trivia contests, Adam Sandler-themed pickleball nights or whatever other wacky events that might be fun.

“There’s a church in town that has a mission statement of ‘belong to an effective community, believe the truth about grace, become a follower of Jesus.’ And I love that order, belong, believe, become,” Wintsch said. “Sometimes I think our really only job is the first one, for belonging, because the other stuff ... kids get to choose that on their own, but we do all we can so that kids can feel a sense of belonging.”

While Wintsch is uninterested in convincing kids to live by the teaching of the gospel, his choice to live a life of generosity, humility and love has earned him the Gazette honor this year.

Wintsch is the 11th recipient of the Person of the Year, which is awarded in partnership with the United Way of the Franklin and Hampshire Region to a Hampshire County resident who has shown “a profound commitment to selflessly helping others.” The award comes with a $500 check, half of which will be donated to a charity of his choice. It was presented Thursday during an awards ceremony at the United Way’s annual meeting at the Look Park Garden House.

In receiving the honor on Thursday, Wintsch told a crowd of more than 150 people that he was humbled and thankful.

“I feel very, very lucky that I have found a place where my hearts joy and passion met with a need in the world,” he said, a saying of one of his favorite philosophers, Frederick Buechner. “So I am among the lucky ones.”

Supporting, caring friend

Whether it’s his open-door family dinners catered by his wife Stacy, free driving lessons with Springfield Central High School seniors or simply listening to someone during a particularly hard time, thousands of teenagers and young adults have found a supportive, caring friend in Wintsch. All they had to do was walk into the basement of his Hadley home, a regular meeting place for local teens in the program.

“Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Wintsch said. “It’s listening. It’s walking in their shoes. It’s going to their sports events or school plays. It’s becoming a coach. It’s earning the right to be heard.”

That doesn’t mean it was always a cakewalk for his family. At Thursday’s ceremony, Wintsch thanked his four children, who were “dragged into Young Life one way or another,” and his wife, who he said did not have a clue about the chaos and craziness that came with marrying a person like him.

Young Life, Hadorn explains, differs from most other Christian-faith based youth organizations in that it has no religious prerequisites. Attendees do not need to belong to a church, pay dues or even believe in God. While the national Young Life mission statement centers around introducing youth to Christianity, Wintsch said that many of the Hampshire County Young Life participants never establish a connection with the Christian faith — he estimates that roughly 1% of the youth actually continue church involvement — but remain valued members of the community.

Hadorn adds that the local model mirrors a Big Brother- or Big Sister-style mentorship program.

“In recent years and in the worlds we live in, kids are isolated a lot of the time,” Hadorn said, “and our hope is we can give them a space to develop meaningful relationships with people, make them feel supported and loved, having a deep relationships with peers and make them feel loved.”

Hampshire County’s chapter of Young Life grew instantly from a handful of kids to 50 teenagers in Wintsch’s basement. But when he offered to collaborate with a local church youth group, the pastor harshly rejected him.

“He said, ‘what makes you think I want to do anything with you?’” Wintsch said. “My mistake was I did not introduce myself to the religious community, and I should have.”

It was not a lesson Wintsch needed to learn twice. He began coaching wrestling at Amherst Regional High School and would continue for almost 20 years. The wrestling team connected him directly to families and the larger school community, allowing him to further mentor students. Becoming “an insider,” as Wintsch called it, is a strategy he passes onto the volunteer leaders at Young Life to establish trust with a community.

Makes time for everybody

“You can tell that Dave’s heart is not about necessarily solving problems, but being a part of people’s lives who are going through hard things,” Sarah Moylan, a former Young Life member. “He does that with everybody. He makes time for everybody.”

When Moylan walked into Wintsch’s basement at 21 years old, she was shocked to find a self-proclaimed religious space filled with so much laughter. Moylan came from a Christian family who took religion very seriously. She never imagined that faith could involve throwing peanut butter or other fun shenanigans. Instantly, she was hooked.

Moylan’s involvement in Young Life was only the beginning of her relationship with Wintsch. When Moylan needed a place to stay between her graduation from UMass and her next job, Wintsch offered his own home for the summer. After Moylan’s short maternity leave ended, Stacy Wintsch provided day care services for the first five years of both her children’s lives. Now, her own 14-year-old son attends Young Life events.

“I think especially since COVID, we’ve seen a mental health crisis where our kids are not connected,” Moylan said. “When it comes to Young Life, everyone says ‘I know who I am, I don’t have to put on a front. I’m safe with Lauren. I’m safe with Dave. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, I can just be real.’”

Hadorn too said she’s “reaped the benefits of knowing him in a way that’s shaped my life.” The Hampshire County Young Life area director met Wintsch as a sophomore in high school while volunteering for Young Life, but only when Hadorn began working for the organization in her junior year of college did she and Wintsch become close friends. She describes Wintsch and his wife Stacy as “Doors unlocked, come over whenever, eat out of the fridge kind of people” who show leadership in their actions, rather than their words.

“You go to college and you leave your parents and you don’t realize how much of a gap that leaves in your life,” Hadorn said. “They [Dave and Stacy Wintsch], for 30 years, have filled that gap for young adults or high schoolers that don’t have family dinners or things that they have at their home.”

And his actions clearly had a profound impact on Hadorn’s leadership style. Wintsch gushed about Hadorn’s current work with one of the Young Life members whose father recently died. She organized a meal drive for the family, gave rides to the 17-year-old and offers whatever assistance she can muster to the family. It’s the same generosity that Wintsch has become famous for, passed on to a new generation.

“Anybody could put on training on how to be a good mentor or leader, but he [Wintsch] has shaped his entire life around being there for people,” Hadorn said. “He’s made a million sacrifices in terms of taking a job that doesn’t pay him very well to be able to be there for people, and it’s so clear that that’s his number one priority.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.