SIDNEY — What a year 2015 was for the Sidney-Shelby County YMCA.
“Membership grew from 4,283 members to 4,703 giving the Y an opportunity to serve more people from our community than ever before,” said Executive Director Ed Thomas. “Driving this growth was the new Membership Reciprocity benefit implemented at the beginning of the year. For no additional cost, all members of the Y are now able to enjoy full and unlimited access to any of the over 50 other YMCA’s throughout the state of Ohio. MOre than 5,000 guests and members took advantage of this.”
His report continues:
Adding to the incentives for joining was the acquisition of fitness equipment, including the latest in stationary Spinning Bikes and the installment of the Active Trax system. With this new system, members are given the added benefit of having their own virtual personal trainer which allows them to monitor and track their workouts, create new exercise routines and design healthy and nutritious menus while keeping tabs of their calorie intake all from their own personal on-line devices.
The Y also experienced record growth and accomplishments in a variety of the programs it offers. National Championship titles in ALL Kinetic Department Teams (Cheerleading, Gymnastics and Acrobatics) were attained. No other Y in the country has this distinction. For the first time ever, two gymnasts reached level 9, which qualified them as USA Junior-Olympians. Some innovative classes offered through the Kinetics Department included the popular Ninja Warrior Class and a Coaches training geared toward Cheerleading, Tumbling and Gymnastics.
In addition to the hundreds of kids who were taught to swim through the traditional small group classes, the Aquatics Department offered a record number of one-on-one private lessons that taught over 80 participants. Thanks to our four sponsors, the one week Splash program provided free water safety classes to over 350 participants from Shelby County, and five new programs were added to the list of aquatic programs, including the new Jr. Lifeguard course. Family members took advantage of the new added value provided to their membership which allowed their children to participate in a variety of classes including Soccer, T-Ball, Flag Football, Counselor-In-Training, Teen Leaders and two youth speed/agility classes called ACE and SET at no additional cost.
The Child Development Center experienced its own historic growth. After a sizeable investment was made in equipment, staff development, restructuring of the layout of the program and achieving a second star in the State of Ohio’s prestigious Step-Up-To-Quality rating system, the program is operating at near full capacity with 170 children enrolled. A new One-Call system was also implemented to better communicate with parents. Through all of these changes, the same mission remains. From infants to toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children, the emphasis remains on caring for the children and helping them to develop to their fullest capacity in a safe, positive and nurturing environment.
Several facility improvements were made including the repair and re-surfacing of the west and east parking lots, the re-surfacing of the west gym floor, the addition of coded security pads to the Child Care Department, installing Wi-Fi throughout the facility and the addition of a new stainless steel Y Brand compliant frontage sign.
New for 2016 is the renovation of the Youth-Fun Center to be filled with interactive virtual games. The conversion of two racquetball courts into new Fitness space, one as an X-treme Functional Room and the other as a Mind, Body, Spirit Studio; more information on these new additions can be found on the Y’s Web page at www.sidney-ymca.org .
As we look forward to the New Year and all that it offers, we give thanks to God for His blessings and guidance, for our amazing caring volunteers and their commitment to helping others, for the incredibly supportive and generous donors, for our loyal members and finally for our dedicated, hardworking and talented group of staff. Our Y is truly blessed and we are honored to serve our community in all of the ways that we are able to.
