Valuable? Healthy? Sure. Fun and flavorful? Um, well...

Long on pontification and parliamentary procedure but short on entertainment, board meetings are rarely the high point on a monthly calendar.

But at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA this past Friday night, scores of participants met for a "board meeting" on the hardwood gymnasium floors for an evening of fun, fundraising and a zesty helping of Zumba.

In just its second year, a two-hour Zumba dance-a-thon to raise money for the YMCA's "We Build People" scholarship campaign more than doubled its participation, luring over 100 fitness fans to the event.

"This is just the second year," YMCA membership and marketing director Greg Lee said. "Last year it was a small event, but we still had 50 people participate. There was a lot more buzz around this one this year."

"My theory is that you do something three times before you either can it or change it," said YMCA board member Kathy Martin, who helped to coordinate the event with volunteer Dale Pratt-Wilson. "This year, we changed the time and really advertised it more."

"We'd been doing Zumba here as an exercise, and we just said, 'Wouldn't it be great if we did this for 'We Build People?' " Pratt-Wilson added. "It's a great way to exercise while you're having fun."

YMCA development director Drew Smith praised the hard work of Martin and Pratt-Wilson.

"This has been well-organized; they did a great job getting the word out," he said, "and it's just one component of the overall 'We Build People' campaign."

"We did a big push with members: We had it on the YMCA website and Facebook," Pratt-Wilson explained. "I also did a lot of external media. Our idea was to get this out to the whole community."

Located at 980 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill, the YMCA facility offers a pool, a fitness center, a full-size gymnasium, outdoor recreation space, a dance / aerobics space, racquetball courts and much more. It is the flagship facility for additional facilities in Chatham County, Meadowmont and a Children's Center at Carol Woods.

The "We Build People" campaign is the annual fundraising initiative to help the YMCA provide financial assistance to those who might otherwise be unable to afford YMCA programs and memberships, the YMCA's website stated.

"In 2011, we awarded $344,000 in financial assistance to the community," Smith said.

"With this Zumba event, people came in, got a great workout, had a good time, enjoyed Zumba with great instructors, and learned a little bit more about the YMCA."

"It also let people know that there is a 'We Build People' campaign, what it does, what it's for, and it got some people in the building who maybe hadn't been in the building for a long time," YMCA executive director Jerry Whortan added.

Smith said the funds raised through the campaign are used in a variety of ways.

"After-school reflects a huge need, there are youth camps, youth sports, and memberships," he explained. "I was talking to a single parent the other day who said she had two kids and a stressful job, but with financial assistance, she can come here and workout while the kids are being cared for here."

"I've looked at sheet after sheet after sheet of names of those we've helped with financial assistance--it's hundreds and hundreds," Whortan said.

"The campaign really doesn't even start in earnest until March--that's when we send our volunteers out to tell the YMCA's story," Lee said. "The Tar Heel 10-Miler is a big event for us each spring, and in the fall, we have a brunch and auction."

While organizers were predictably pleased with the Zumba event's growth, the size of the dance crowd was a bit intimidating for instructors Beth Floyd and Brandi Burroughs, who traded off time leading the large group.

"It's almost too much," Floyd said, chuckling. "I got a little scared at times, and I thought, 'Oh my God, what am I doing.'"

"It's a lot of pressure," Burroughs said. "I've been listening to the songs all week. I try to (plan it out), but I always invent a few new things as I go."

An unheralded factor in the growth of the event was the growth of Zumba itself -- a practice that has steadily gained more and more advocates over the past few years. Emulating Latin-inspired dance moves, the exercise craze incorporates an upbeat party-style atmosphere into a calorie-burning fitness class.

"I do Zumba at (Orange United Methodist) Church every Monday night," participant Jan Holland said. "I'm trying to get as many people as involved as possible, because moving is a good thing."

Holland said Zumba is so fun, you can forget that it's healthy as well.

"You don't realize you're getting exercise because you're dancing," she said. "You have to use your brain. You have to think about what you're doing a little bit to stay in the right groove. You can jump around or do it low impact. I like it a lot."

Next up on the YMCA's calendar will be summer camp registration.

"That's already starting the first week of February, Lee said.

The next major community event benefitting the "We Building People" campaign will be the fifth annual running of the Wells Fargo Tar Heel 10-Miler and Fleet Feet Sports 4+ Mile Run on April 21. The event is expected to draw 5,000 runners to Chapel Hill and the UNC Campus.

As for the future of the Zumba dance-a-thon fundraiser on the "boards" of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA gymnasium, when asked if the event might actually outgrow its allotted space at the YMCA facility in future years, Martin smiled:

"Wouldn't that be awesome to have to deal with?"