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YMCA Announces $500,000 Challenge Grant For Aquatics Center Projection

July 20, 2012 at 3:01 pm
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The Twin Pike Family YMCA announced today that it has received a $500,000 challenge grant that brings it a breaststroke closer to building a $3.8 million aquatics center that will be open to all.

The award of the challenge grant was made by the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation of Tulsa, Okla., and is dependent upon the YMCA raising $1.2 million in cash or pledges in the next 12 months.  If it does, the Y will receive another $500,000 gift for the campaign.

The not-for-profit Twin Pike Family YMCA serves the personal, spiritual and physical development needs of more than 5,000 people from Pike County, Mo., and Pike County, Ill., either as facility members, program participants or through more than 30 free community service events annually. 

Twin Pike YMCA Aquatics Center Press Conference

The Mabee Foundation was formed in 1948 to aid Christian religious organizations, charitable groups, institutions of higher learning, hospitals and charities.

“We are grateful to the Mabee Foundation for believing in us and we know that our supporters will come through in raising the pledges we need to make the aquatics center campaign successful,” said Jim Ross, Twin Pike Family YMCA board president. “We have already proven in a difficult economy that when people see the need, they come through for the Twin Pike Family YMCA. We have accomplished a great deal in a short amount of time. Now, we must continue that momentum.”

The fund drive for the aquatics center began in November 2009 with an anonymous $1.4 million donation. Collections and pledges through the “Pool Founders First 500 Program,” in which the first 500 individuals, families or businesses that donate at least $1,000 each will receive special recognition, total more than $300,000.

The aquatics center will be built onto the Y’s facility at 614 Kelly Lane in Louisiana. A timetable has not been set, but the Y plans to have all of the money in hand before construction starts.

The facility will offer 61,550 square feet on the main level and 6,160 square feet on the second level. It will feature a six-lane, 25-meter swimming pool with a zero-depth entry and pool locker rooms. The building will include an elevated walking track around the pool, with an entrance from the second floor.

The addition will also mean that the existing lobby and child watch area will be relocated so that the fitness center can be expanded.

Aquatic programs such as swim lessons, swim team, water aerobics and arthritis exercise, which have been done until now at public swimming pools managed by the Y in Bowling Green and Louisiana, will be provided at the new facility.

The nearest indoor aquatics facilities are 30 miles to 55 miles away in Hannibal, St. Peters, Quincy, Ill., and Jacksonville, Ill. The Western Community Center YMCA in Barry, Ill., will open soon, but will not feature an aquatics center.

“Because of transportation issues, those facilities are not an option for most of the people living in the Twin Pike counties,” said Marsha Garrison, YMCA executive director. “This new facility will provide an opportunity to meet the needs of under-served and un-served groups in our communities.”

Garrison said the aquatics center will also “allow for the creation of services for seniors, people with mobility issues or physical disabilities and limitations, as well as increase the opportunities for health and wellness activities, social programming and rehabilitation programs” for all age groups.

“With the addition of the aquatics center, the YMCA will be able to target the health and fitness needs of those living in this area who have chronic health problems with joint and bone disorders,” Garrison said. “As our senior population grows in this area and the number of seniors served by the Y continues to increase, low or no-impact exercise programs are vital to helping with physical well-being.”

Ross, of Lincoln County Bancorp in Troy, also sees financial benefits for the community.

 “Building this facility favorably impacts the potential for economic growth of the Twin Pike area,” he said. “Securing resources that will attract businesses and families will help to stabilize the economic atmosphere.  Providing programs and services that are not currently available will create new opportunities for economic growth, while increasing the number of health and wellness offerings.. The benefits of this project are far-reaching.”

The aquatics center is known as “phase three” of the Y’s building plan. The first phase was the $1.2 million original construction in 2001. The second was a $1.5 million addition that was completed in 2008.

The Twin Pike Family YMCA first opened in 1993 in a one-room office rented from the Louisiana Chamber of Commerce. It used facilities offered at nearby schools, churches and community centers. In 1997, operations were moved to a historic building on Third Street in downtown Louisiana.

The Y opened its new 10,530-square-foot home on Kelly Lane in June 2001. It featured a gym, locker rooms, showers, fitness center with free-weights, nautilus equipment, cardio equipment, a child watch area and administrative offices.

Over the next 18 months, membership doubled and in March 2003, the Y received a $1.4 million grant to develop after-school programs for three area school districts.

The board decided that with space at a premium, an expansion was needed. Fund-raising began to double the size of the fitness center and locker rooms and add an aerobics room, a teen/senior center and additional administrative space.

Since the expansion in 2008, facility usage has increased by 30 percent and program participation has risen by 40 percent. Last year, the Y had more than 36,000 visits from health-seekers who were facility members or day-pass users.

In addition, the Y provides more than 30 community-wide events each year that are free to all. Almost 12,000 people took advantage of the events last year.

After receiving a second childcare grant from the Missouri Department of Education in 2007, the Y increased services to include six sites that offer before- and after-school programs, extended-day summer school programs, in addition to the all-day, six-week YMCA Day Camp for kids.

The Y submitted two grant applications to the Illinois Department of Education to partner with Pike County, Ill., school districts for after-school programs, but the grants were not funded.

The donor of the original $1.4 million anonymous contribution for the aquatics center project specified that $180,000 be set aside for maintenance and operations of the pool for the first three years.

The Twin Pike Family YMCA board has left the door open to considering future management contracts of the public pools in Bowling Green and Louisiana once the aquatics center opens.

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