YMCA Breaks Ground for New Facilities

YMCA Board members, staff, and children of staff pose on Friday at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the new YMCA facility on North Water Street in Kittanning.

By Katie Flory

The Armstrong County YMCA celebrated the beginning of a long awaited project on Friday, June 10^th.  

The Groundbreaking Ceremony, at the new North Water Street location, drew more than even the YMCA staff had anticipated. With standing room only, the crowd looked on at the start of what may be the biggest project of 2011 in Armstrong County.

Gary Miller, YMCA CEO, spoke in the opening ceremony. “Every community deserves a YMCA; however, not all communities are lucky enough to have one. In the YMCA’s national level, just last year, there have been a lot of changes. Our emblem has changed. The red and black is gone. They have refreshed themselves. One thing I do like about the changes is that they went back and tried to decide, what’s really a YMCA, and what do they do in a community? They were very distinctive about it and I think they are correct. What they figured out is that YMCA’s help strengthen communities. That’s what they do, that’s what we do…in any way. We help and we work hard strengthening the community. We’re going to continue doing that.” said Miller.

Deciding on location, building specifications, and the growth for YMCA provided programs has required much energy from the staff involved.

Operations Director, Joely Beeker, was relieved to see the project officially begin. “I’m excited for the community, and I’m excited for Armstrong County. It’s been a long time coming and a lot of hard work went into it. I think its going to benefit the families in this community tremendously. There will be more work, more programs, the more things we add the bigger we get! They are predicting completion of the project on March of 2012.” said Beeker.

As for location, Gary Miller feels there could not have been a better choice.

“This is just a new venue, a much better venue. This is all based on what the community wanted. Because we did have a very solid survey on it, we were able to prioritize the needs. What’s being constructed will follow those needs and that’s exactly why we came out here. I think the new programs and just the pool itself are going to help in the new Y’s success.  The new Y is in the middle of a residential area, everybody knows where it is, it’s close to the high school, and the Rails to Trails is right behind it, this will draw a lot of people in. Being in a residential area makes it the best.”