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HISTORY OF THE HENDERSON COUNTY FAMILY YMCA
Brief narrative of the agency’s history, description of agency’s structure and administration, its programs, services, expanded facility and demographic nature of persons served.
The Henderson County Family YMCA has been in existence since 1894 when it was located in a downtown office area.
In 1898, the Y moved to another downtown office area, before building its first facility in 1904, at the site of the present Big Rivers Electric parking lot located down by the river. The dated granite corner stone now sits out front of this facility.
The Y remained in this 3 story building until 1971, when it was torn down and a new 32,885 sq ft facility was built on 5 acres of land donated by Carlton Klutey, at 460 Klutey Park Plaza Drive, which opened in June 1973. There was a Capital Campaign from 1971 – 1973 that raised nearly $800,000 that helped pay for the new facility. The campaign involved such community leaders as Hecht Lackey, Herbert Hoffman, Lambert Farmer, Tom Glover, William Deep, James Crafton, Dr. John Logan,III, Ray Preston, Ken Miller, John Stanley Hoffman, Houston Keach, William Latta, Leo King, Owen Gregory, Ron Jenkins, William Hodge,Jr., Malcolm Neel, Bob Snyder and Reuben Boswell to name a few.
From 1973 thru 1997, there had been little done to the facility in the way of any major improvements, except for an air inflated tennis bubble that was erected over two outdoor courts for the winter months in the mid 80’s. In late 1997, the beginning of a two year $1.25 million dollar Capital Campaign kicked off. Mr. Chris Hopgood served as Board President and Campaign Chairman, and Sheldon Booze served as CEO/Executive Director of the Y , and was also the Campaign Director. No professional fund-raising consultants were hired, saving nearly $80,000 in fees ! Key community leaders involved in this campaign included Walt Dear, Tore Stuen, Joan Hoffman, Dr. John Logan,III, Scott Davis, Ray Preston, Jerry Wischer,Phyllis Crafton, David Thomason, Jo Taylor, Greg Mullican, John Hodge and Steve Austin to name a few.
By late 2000, the Y had raised over $1.35 million in gifts and pledges ! Another $400,000 was raised in 2002 ! With several very generous lead gifts from the Raymond B. Preston Family Foundation, Walt & Martha Dear and from Leo & Gail King, our YMCA was able to begin facility improvements in the summer of 1998, and in the winter of 1999, the Y’s first addition was added with the new Health & Wellness addition. In the spring of 2000, the new Multi-Rec Center(tennis courts/walking track/aerobic&tae kwon do room)was completed. In February of 2003, a new Youth/Sports Gymnasium and a second Teen/Adult Fitness Center(free weight area) was completed. There were numerous other improvements made to both the inside and outside the Y between 1998-2004.
In June 2004, the Y’s final major construction project(as planned in the 1997 5 year plan)was completed, that being our new $850,000 Warm Water Therapy Pool, complete with lockers, private showers, changing & bathroom areas ! In October 2004, the Y completed a new parking lot in the back, with 66 new parking spaces that will help handle the need for additional parking during busier months, as well as allow parents to park closer to the fields for youth sports.
A new 5,100 sq.ft. Social&Recreation Center and Front Entrance addition($750,000), opened January 3, 2008, with computers, seating, vending, DDR, racing bikes,pool tables and various other games.
In April 2014, our YMCA began construction on building onto the existing facility with another 2,800 sq ft fitness center addition, as well as a 3,200 sq ft Indoor Mini-Golf Center addition! Completion date is October 2014 with a projected overall cost of $550,000, to be totally paid thru the Y's Capital Account Fund!
In November 2016, the YMCA added Air Condition to the Indoor Track&Tennis facility, to be used between April-Oct of each summer to help better control the heat and humidity for our members during the warmer months.
Presently, our YMCA is conducting another survey among our members, staff and volunteers to gather input and ideas for possible future growth in facility and program development. Hope to have preliminary proposal for Board review in early 2017.
In May 2017, the YMCA relocated the Indoor Mini-Golf 18 holes from Inside to Outside behind the Tennis building. Started changing over the former indoor mini-golf center to another exercise room. Decided to offer a new series of Les Mills Live and Virtual TV strength, exercise and cycling classes starting in October 2017. Spent nearly $100,000 in the room conversion and equipment.
The YMCA is a non-profit 501-C-3 organization that is overseen by a volunteer lay Board of Directors, as well as several standing committees made up of board and Y members. The Y is staffed by 6 full-time and 90 part-time staff. The Y offers a variety of programs and services year round for all ages and interests, many in collaboration with other local non-profits, school systems and community groups, with usage of Y facilities at little or no cost !
The Henderson County Family YMCA is proud of the fact that our Y has one of the highest percentage of scholarship underwriting, when compared to total membership and operating revenue received. Thanks to the Board of Directors, which allows our Y to underwrite the scholarship need each year, we were able to scholarship $221,737 in 2018, to 2,938 low income youth and families in Henderson County !
In August of 2017, the United Way of Henderson County stopped directly funding our YMCA, due to a surplus of funds in our investment accounts, which is mainly earmarked for Capital Projects and Improvements. United Way made our YMCA a “designated” only agency, where people can decide if they wish their donations to go to our YMCA for Summer Day Camp Scholarships! Direct annual funding went from $19,000 to $2,400 in designated donations. UW of Henderson County dropped our YMCA as a “designated only” agency all together in July 2019, thus taking away peoples option to decide if they wanted their donations to go to our Day Camp Scholarship Fund or another current agency? We received many complaints about the action that the United Way of Henderson County took.
Our YMCA has enjoyed significant increases over the years in the number of members and program participants, with a total of 9,049 members and over 2000 program participants at the end of 2018. About 45% of our members have a family type membership, with the remaining 55% made up of individual youth, adults and senior citizens. Nearly 60% of our adult and family members are part of a corporate membership, which qualifies them for a lower membership fee. Our regular membership rates continue to be the overall lowest among Kentucky and Indiana Y’s that have full facilities ! For the first time in 20 years, membership rates were not increased the typical $1/month for 2017,nor for 2018 or 2019 either !
As of August 2019, our YMCA had approximately 53% female members and 47% male members who come from every community in Henderson County, as well as some members from Union and Webster Counties.
In December 2017, a Planet Fitness Center opened up in Henderson in a former grocery store on Rt. 41. Because of their low $10/month fee for a fitness center only, about 8% of mostly younger Y members joined them. In addition, the YMCA did not attract as many new memberships during 2018 and had a total of 9,049 members at the end of 2018.
In January 2018, Nationwide membership started, where a member of 1 YMCA could use the facilities, and some programs of any other YMCA in the country for free. This allowed our “Tri-State” YMCA's to stop having to limit the number of visits per year of each others members. This helps to some degree, to combat the opening of a Planet Fitness Center here in Henderson in Dec. 2017.
In May 2018, long time employees Cathy Bullock-Membership Director for 30 years retired and in July 2018, Vickie Brown- 45 years at the Service Desk retired! Also in May 2018, we hired our first Fitness Center Coordinator, Hannah Alvey, who is also a certified Personal Trainer. We started offering affordable Personal Training again, after 7 yrs not.
In August 2018, our YMCA purchased and had installed, a full line of Technogym Weight and Cardio equipment and named the 2nd Fitness Center, The New Technogym Fitness Center. The equipment is the BEST technology driven fitness equipment on the market! Total cost was $137,000, plus on-going monthly costs for PM and Apps to connect to the various programs and tracking capabilities offered to members. We also hired more Fitness Center staff.
In August 2018, the Main Parking lot was completely re- done over by The Rogers Group and Double A Excavation, at a cost of $165,000. All of the 4” asphalt was removed, nearly 2' of rock was removed and replaced in over half of the parking lot, a French Drain was added in several directions and draining into the side rock ditch.
We also had the entire Roadway going around the Main Parking Lot; the Side Parking lot along the North Ball Field and the Parking Lot by the Warm Pool, all cracked filled with 2 coats and re-stripped by Crowley's Paving at a cost of $6,500.
In October 2018, the Y installed 2 New Hydromassage Lounge Recliners in the Cardio Fitness Center, for free use by all adult Y members. Cost was $32,000.
In December 2018, the Y purchased a 3rd Hydromassage Recliner due to their popularity among Y members! This gave our YMCA 1 more recliner than Planet Fitness!
In 2019 replaced 4 HVACUnits and replaced all lockers(1/2s to fulls)in both Health Locker Rooms, as well as in both Warm Pool Locker Rooms, in addition to numerous other improvements.
MOST DRAMATIC OCCURENCE IN THE USA SINCE 1908 PLAGUE!
***ON MARCH 17, 2020, our YMCA, along with numerous State Wide(and Nationally)businesses, were ordered by the KY Governor Andy Beshear, TO CLOSE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, DUE TO THE CORONA VIRUS-19 OUTBREAK/PANDEMIC! Worldwide deaths occurred. MASSAVE FEDERAL GOVT FINANCIAL RELIEF. OVER $6 TRILLON DOLLARS, WITH MORE LIKELY NEEDED!! OVER 24 MILLION UNEMPLOYED!!
Our YMCA was allowed to re-open our Fitness Centers ONLY, on June 1, 2020, after 2.5 months of being totally CLOSED! Our Y lost about $375,000 in revenue. We did receive a $160,000 Payroll Protection ProgramLoan(PPP) that we used for assisting majority of our staff(F-T & P-T) that were not able to file for unemployment benefits, that included the federal WEEKLY assistance of $600 per week, plus KY unemployment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great at the beginning of the shutdowns, but vast majority of even our p-t staff never came close to making that amount of money in a month, let alone every week until the end of July!!
As the KY Governor Andy Beshear finally loosened up some of the remainging restrictions, our Y slowly opened other areas and some classes, but many of our p-t staff did not want to return until the federal assistance stopped, which made it harder to fill some positions, so we had to give those p-t who would return, ALOT more hours than planned. Some may qualify for their first of 2 years fpr the Y’s retirement program, which will drive up the operating cost for the Y after 2021.
Our Y, like most, was not safely able to offer our traditional Summer Day Camp program, for the first time in at least 30 years! Babysitting still closed. No pee wee sports/swim lessons. Main Gym use limited to 4 people.
As of January 11, 2021, the Covid-19 Pandemic in KY; USA and the World has gotten a lot worse! Far more cases than ever, and now there is a new more contagious covid strain that the new vaccines may not treat!? Our YMCA has our Fitness Centers open with about half the equipment available; lap swim with 1 swimmer per lane; Warm Pool use limited to max 10 people only allowed to go halfway across the pool, with orange cones on both sides of the pool acting as “lanes”. Tennis and Track usable. 1 person racquetball. NO BABYSITTING still. BOTH HEALTH LOCKER ROOMS have seen ALOT of member cancellations due to no sauna allowed by the KY GOV
We have lost 20% of the membership units we had as of April 1, 2020 ! Lost nearly $400,000 in membership revenue ! Les Mills classes/cycling and a couple Group Ex. Classes offered going pretty good considering. Have only about 50 staff working since June/July 2020. Looks like our Y will qualify for another PPP Loan.
Stimulus checks from Federal Govt still being given out. New President Joe Biden started January 20, 2021. Country is in turmoil over the attack on the US Capital on Jan. 6, 2021, after a President Trump rally.
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