YMCA's Crown Jewel 

Stepping onto the Bill and Karen Young Balcony overlooking the Marco Island YMCA campus for the first time earlier this month caused CEO and President Cindy Love-Abounader’s eyes to widen. The scene was even more stunning than she had imagined.

“It’s the first time I’ve been up here,” Love-Abounader said, "they just poured the second floor last week. This is pretty emotional for me, actually. I mean, you're talking about my life's work, but also a lot of the board members' and community's life work here. Look, you can sit up here and you'll be able to watch everybody play pickleball and tennis.”

Someone notices Love-Abounader in her construction hard hat and shouts to her from below. "There's George,” Love-Abounader said, waving. "Hi, George. Hi, Jodi.” You can already see the magic that the new Healthy Living Center will embody.

"This is a spectacular view of everything here,” said John Riley, the Y’s director of development. “You can really follow every bit of action on these three tennis courts right here.”

"This is so cool,” Love-Abounader gushes.

"It's an exclusive first look,” Riley said of the privilege afforded the Coastal Breeze News.

Reilly Smith, the Y’s healthy living director, was also part of the sneak peek.

"I'm going to get to work early and sit out here with my coffee,” she said as she surveyed the view from the balcony. “This is gorgeous.”

The Healthy Living Center is certain to be the crown jewel of the Marco Y campus.

"Oh, yeah, for sure,” Love-Abounader said. "That's how I see it. It's going to be what people see and go, wow! With the Youth Development Center, we really tried to take care of our kids and families. And it's great. But this is the crown jewel."

Of course, a crown jewel comes at a cost. In this case the cost is $8.5 million. And while fundraising has been successful, more funding is needed. And the sooner the better.

“We’re at 80 percent of getting this building paid for,” Riley interjects. “We have other expenses. But the main thing is that we get the building paid for. That gets us to 8.5 million. So, if we can get the community's help getting to that $8.5 million, then we'll be selective in asking for some other assistance to make sure that we make the most of this facility. But the first step is to get to $8.5 million so that we don't have to carry debt on this project. We're hoping that the community really comes together. The recent gala was a big part of that. We really got a lot of support at the gala for this project. That was very inspiring. But I hope it keeps going. We've had our people closest to us, our board members and others, step in early. We got some support from the state. Our elected representatives helped us, Kathleen Passidomo and Bob Rommel. Now Yvette Benarroch has stepped into that role and is really advocating for us."

As she looks out over the Y campus, Love-Abounader reflects on how it looked 32 years ago when she started with the Marco Y.

“When I started here we had the pool, four hard tennis courts, and the main building,” she said. “That was it. No Youth Development Center. None of the clay tennis courts. And now we've got eight. The nine pickleball courts weren't here. None of the shade areas around the pool. And the build on to the main building with the wings for the 24-hour fitness wasn't here either. And then we built an admin area just to have offices. And now this is the build-out. This is the crown jewel. I’m really proud of it. I have high hopes that it's going to be the missing piece to Marco Island. We've got our parks and they're fantastic, but, you know, you come in here, grab a smoothie, socialize, watch activity, you can even see the pool from here. We can even watch the kids if we want. It is a bird's-eye view. We always have known that the Y is the hub of the island, but this really is going to be the community hub for even more people.”

Initially conceived as a senior center, the vision quickly became more expansive.

“Marco Islanders don't like the word senior," Love-Abounader said. "This facility is geared to a lot of passive activities, but it’s also active, like the whole fitness center. It really adds to the whole campus for all ages. But it'll have those types of activities we're looking for. We're looking for somebody to help program that big room that's downstairs, do all the meals, socialization, card games, all that stuff that you have in a senior activity facility. We’ll have resources from medical stuff, to tax stuff, to legal stuff. We're hoping to have all those resources available for them, with talks and series and that type of thing.”

Riley said a key strategy for the Healthy Living Center is to encourage members to hang around. 

"Everywhere throughout this building we're trying to encourage people to enjoy time in the sun, in the shade, on the porches inside,” Riley said. “We're just saying, 'please stay and socialize.'

One of the things that inspired us is hearing from people who are relatively socially isolated because of changes in their physical health or because of losing a spouse. We say, ‘Why don't you come to the Y?' They say, ‘Oh, I used to love the Y. I used to play tennis five days a week, but I just can't anymore.' That's something we see a lot. We see people who think of the Y as somewhere they were welcome and used when they were at their peak, not as a place where there's something for them now. And that's what we want this facility to change. We want people to feel like this is home for them. This is a hub of services, but it’s also a comfortable space for them to come no matter what their abilities are. We're excited about that. We think that once we get them here, a certain portion of people who thought they couldn't exercise anymore will find that we have things we can help them with. But the first step is getting them out and getting them engaged with people in their community. Because one of the things that's toughest is seeing the people who invested in this island and this community kind of recede into the shadows. We want them to know they're still valued and we are still here to support them.”

One feature that is sure to bring people together is the HydroLOGICA Healthy Cafe.

“It's designed so that people can use the whole facility,” Riley said. “They can take their coffee or their wrap out to the patio, the balcony, anywhere in the facility. There will be some seating here, but it’s a small cafe." 

Love-Abounader feels confident that the Healthy Living Center will be complete by the end of the summer.

“The only thing that would delay it is if we can't raise the rest of the money,” Love-Abounader said. “It might delay it a little bit. That means we would have to go out for a loan, and we don’t want to do that. This is a call to action. Like right now. We need $2 million right now. So, if you're out there, please help. Right now is the time we need to bring this thing home. We need to close the deal now. We need everybody's help. Even if it's a hundred bucks at this time. We have building naming opportunities. The Y's taken for granted a lot of times, in that a lot of people don't know that we're a 501c3 and that the fees we charge here do not cover our costs. That’s number one. Number two, we offset costs for childcare and people that can't afford memberships. That's why we have our annual campaign to help bridge that gap. And then when we go into capital, we have to have the community to help us with that. Because we are a not-for-profit. And we certainly don't have the surplus to build new projects. We're really depending on people voluntarily to offer brand new money. Even though it’s a not-for-profit, this Y property is the community's. It's not Cindy’s."

To find out how you can help, contact John Riley at 239-394-9622 ext. 225. Or email John at development@ymcacollier.org