BURLINGTON — The city’s newest YMCA location on College Street officially opened Thursday with a twist — a “ribbon connecting” ceremony instead of the more typical ribbon cutting.
Officials said the move was done to emphasize the community involvement in the project.
The Greater Burlington YMCA has been under construction over the last two years, and now welcomes members to use the two pools, multiple studios and weight rooms, multi-use gym, a track, gender neutral locker rooms and more. YMCA is also encouraging parents to take advantage of the new 10,000 square feet of early childhood education space.
The new space is called the Pomerleau Family YMCA after the family pledged a $1 million challenge to fundraising efforts in 2017.
CEO of the Greater Burlington YMCA Kyle Dodson said the YMCA has already welcomed over 1,000 new members before the new space was even open.
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said the completion of the YMCA was a priority for his administration, and he has championed efforts to bring more childhood education opportunities for the city.
Weinberger said the new childhood education space will have room for more than 40 kids, aged infant to preschool. He added that the presence of childhood education space allowed for “the city to be a small financial backer of this with some of our new child care funds.”
“This is a building that will make us healthier as a community,” Weinberger said, adding he had his first workout in the space Thursday morning. “It’s a building that will expand our capacity to properly care for our youngest Burlingtonians — a challenge of our time.”
Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman shared his congratulations, and said he was impressed to see the diversity of people using the YMCA while he was swimming with his daughter on New Year’s Day.
The new space is only one block away from the previous location on College Street, and Zuckerman said the location makes it a “walkable location for a wide swath of Burlington.”
Part of the $28 million needed to build the space came from the New Markets Tax Credit, a federal program championed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. The credit program gave $6 million to the project, said Greater Burlington YMCA Vice President of Development Rick Blount.
“This is a project that I know is close to Leahy’s heart,” Weinberger said.
Leahy said he and his wife Marcelle used to live a few blocks from the old YMCA location, and highlighted the importance of the YMCA as a place for healthy activities.
Leahy touched on how many people came together to create the new space, saying Republicans, Democrats and independents put aside their differences to make the community stronger.
“That’s an example that I just wish all the rest of the country would see and follow, because that would make us the United States of America we celebrate,” he said.
Ernie Pomerleau stressed the importance of the childhood education space. He noted when raising his children in Burlington, he would wait for hours to secure a spot in the education program.
“This is about the whole political cycle, the community cycle, the family cycle and the place now for our families and children,” Pomerleau said. “This is your Y.”
Dodson said over 450 individuals donated to the new YMCA, which accounted for over $19.5 million. The sale of the old building brought in an additional $3 million. Blount said the space has a total of 50,000 square feet, and a larger mission is to expand childhood education for infants and toddlers.
“This is not just a gym,” Blount said after the ceremony. “We’re a crossroads for all kinds of people across the community to come together.”
Looking ahead, Dodson he would like to expand educational opportunities for Burlington, like YMCA locations in other states already do. He would like to partner with local law enforcement to speak about cyberbullying, the city itself to discuss development and bring in nutritionists from the University of Vermont Medical Center.
To close the announcement, speakers and more than 150 in attendance gathered in front of the ribbon to “connect” it. Dodson said the space is more about bringing the community together, and thought cutting the ribbon would be counter to the mission of the new YMCA.
“What we’re really about is creating connections, not severing,” Dodson said.
