YMCA of Monroe County officials and supporters introduced the nonprofit to Ellettsville business leaders over breakfast last week.
Speakers included Roberta Kelzer, executive director of YMCA of Monroe County; Kit Klingelhoffer, chair of the YMCA Chairman’s Round Table Committee; Darby McCarty, chair of the Smithville Charitable Foundation; and Angie Raake, human resources director and marketing coordinator at Peoples State Bank.
“We knew we had to land right here in the northwest quadrant of Monroe County,” Kelzer said. “It’s just hard to believe after seven years, it’s a reality.”
Among other things, the YMCA at Vernal Pike and Innovation Court will have a pool, basketball courts, a track, a wellness center, an exercise room, and a licensed daycare.
The latter, Kelzer said, is needed in a community of small businesses.
She said the facility is 40% to 50% complete and will be finished “easily by the end of the year.”
“But what we see as a staff is incredible opportunity to serve you,” Kelzer said.
Klingelhoffer said the organization gave out 2,180 scholarships to join the YMCA and 213 scholarships to go to camp at the YMCA last year. It subsidizes memberships for 20 community organizations.
“We’re heavily involved in heart rehab, in arthritis, in diabetes prevention,” he continued.
The YMCA of Monroe County secured a $750,000 grant for community children, kindergarten through fifth grade. The grant will pay for after-school programming and combine the efforts of the YMCA, the Boys & Girls Club, and Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp.
“The community comes to The Y, but The Y also goes into the community,” Klingelhoffer said.
McCarty said the Smithville Foundation got involved because of the impact the YMCA can have on children.
“We have needed this on this side of the county for a very long time,” she said. “I think it will have a very strong impact on what happens around Ellettsville.”
About 40 people were in attendance. The Northwest YMCA is scheduled to open November 2013.
Originally published in Ellettsville Journal, 2013. Republished here for archival and portfolio purposes.