Joy Buchanan, of Buchanan Communications, spokesperson for the Y, looks over dozens of exercise bikes and treadmills; TV sets will be on far wall. The Y plans to open on December 27th. (MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers) New Dow Bay Area Family Y Nearing Completion, Aims to Double Membership
|
|||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
As a magnificent new edifice rises on Washington Avenue next to City Hall for the Bay Area Family Y, perspective on the growth of the organization is provided by a look back.
The Y has about 1,200 members at present and team leaders headed by Y President Scott Carmona aim to boost that to about 2,200 in the new building, opening Dec. 27, according to Joy Buchanan, of Buchanan Communications, spokesperson for the Y.
Dedication ceremonies are being planned for Jan. 25, she said.
Three membership categories have been established: youth (17 and under) $18 a month; adults, 18 and older, $44 monthly; Household, (one or two adults and all dependent children in the household), $78 a month.
Financial assistance is offered to those who qualify. Last year the Y provided about $86,000 in scholarships. Contact John Rooy, membership director, at jrooy@ymcabaycity.org
Besides Mr. Carmona, officers of the Y are Tammy Brinkman, vice-president; Chuck Moulds, treasurer; Jill Callahan, secretary; board members Walter Szostak, Mike Ingram, Magen Samyn, Mike Lentz, Jerry Crete, Guy Moulthrop, Pat Tobin, Fritz Horak, Brenda Rowley, Richard Gudkese, Rod Sundstrom and Konnie Gill.
Staff includes Jim Vietti, finance director/associate director; Katie VanDuinen, senior program director; John Rooy, membership director; Angela Buda, preschool and child care director; Rob Hendry, aquatics coordinator; Dani Klida, executive assistant; Nancy Powers, member service coordinator; and Ralph Trepkowski, maintenance/janitorial supervisor.
Three years after the end of the Civil War, the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) became active in Bay City.
The first meeting of like-minded young men was held in the bible room of the Baptist Church on Washington Avenue between Center and Fifth avenues.
Now, 143 years later, the Y is building a new $13.2 million headquarters that will continue and expand the organization's role as a vibrant center of community life. A major grant from The Dow Chemical Company has led to the name "The Dow Bay Area Family Y."
Although the first Y organization consisted only of a parlor and reading room and survived just a few years, it set the tone for similar social improvement programs to follow.
In 1885 a revived Y organization under president D.C. Smalley, an industrialist, added offices, a lecture hall, library, classrooms, a gymnasium and bath facilities. The $30,000 cost came from Presbyterian philanthropist Alexander Folsom, an unmarried local lumberman who also endowed Alma College's start with $50,000 and left $60,000 to various church charities. The Y's new home was the remodeled Walton Block on the west side of Adams Street between Center Avenue and Sixth Street.
In 1908, a signal year for Bay City in that it also marked a new Wenonah Hotel and park, the Y moved to a new building on the northeast corner of Seventh Street and Washington Avenue.
A basketball court and swimming pool were added attractions, along with low cost rooms in a third floor dormitory for young men just starting out in the local workforce. Bay City Central's famed Native American football coach, Garland Nevitt, was a resident there 1922-35. Such facilities were in keeping with the mission of the Y that began in Britain a half century earlier.
In 1954 a new Y opened on the former site of Eastern High School at Madison Avenue and 11th Street. It was considered one of the finest facilities for a city its size in the country.
The building that served the community for 57 years now is up for sale. The 57,000 square foot structure is on the market for $467,000 under listing by Frank Janca of Best Real Estate.
The new building, 96,400 square feet of modernistic glass, steel and stone, begun in May 2010, has been designed by Integrated Architects of Grand Rapids to be a busy center of community life. IA has just finished three new Y buildings in the Grand Rapids area, according to Miss Buchanan.
Fundraising is continuing for the Y and among donation opportunities are the purchase of bricks bearing the donor's name for a display area in the front of the building, said Miss Buchanan.
Among features of the new Bay City Y are:
The YMCA movement dated to 1844 in industrialized London, a place of great turmoil and despair. For the young men who migrated to the city from rural areas to find jobs, London offered a bleak landscape of tenement housing and dangerous influences.
The official YMCA history notes that twenty-two-year-old George Williams, a farmer-turned-department store worker, was troubled by what he saw in London. It was an era chronicled by Charles Dickens and personified by his Scrooge from the classic Christmas Carol who in his early incarnation was much taken with prisons and workhouses as ideal social institutions.
Young Williams joined 11 friends to organize the first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), a refuge of Bible study and prayer for young men seeking escape from the hazards of life on the London streets.
Although an association of young men meeting around a common purpose was nothing new, the Y offered something unique for its time. The organization's drive to meet social need in the community was compelling, and its openness to members crossed the rigid lines separating English social classes.
Years later, retired Boston sea captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan, working as a marine missionary, noticed a similar need to create a safe 'home away from home' for sailors and merchants. Inspired by the stories of the Y in England, he led the formation of the first U.S. YMCA at the Old South Church in Boston on December 29, 1851.
Workmen preparing new Y building for Dec. 27 opening throng check-in area that will be hub of building activity.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
Y Project Director Scott Carmona, right, and employee and volunteer team confer in new office area.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
Spokesperson Joy Buchanan checks out steam room while City Fire Marshal Tom Wieszczecinski inspects sauna.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
City Electrical Inspector Pete Zurek, right, confers with electrician at check-in area.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
Pool from viewing area above; hot tub in left rear; 4-lane lap pool, left; slide for kids, lazy river, 0 level entry other features.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
Bay City's second YMCA building (1908-1954) was located on Washington Avenue at Seventh Street. (Photo courtesy Marv Kusmierz, Bay-Journal.com)
Exterior of 96,400 square foot building is new iconic sight on Washington Avenue.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
Second floor parquet basketball-volleyball floor gleams as it awaits final clean-up.
(MyBayCity Photo by Dave Rogers)
| Printer Friendly Story View |
"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers! |
|
|
Dave Rogers |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-16-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm