YMCA to Open May 29

By Ron Caldwell
– The Collierville Herald –

The new YMCA in Collierville at Schilling Farms is on target for completion and announced to The Herald on Tuesday that its grand opening celebration will take place on May 29.

Kim Ballard, executive director of the Collierville YMCA, said that the new center will be ready to open and offer a full range of summer programs.

"We will be ready to go with summer day camps, summer swimming lessons, and all of our summer programming," said Ballard. "The construction is right on target. They have the walls and the roof up and are moving right along."

She said that the YMCA is also "right on target" toward reaching its fund-raising goal of $3.9 million for the new facility, which is located 500 feet into Schilling Farms at the Poplar View entrance on property donated by Harry Smith of Schilling Farms.

The YMCA has raised $3.2 million toward its Collierville goal.

The YMCA at Schilling Farms in Collierville was the recent recipient of a $300,000 donation from Delta Beverage in Collierville for an indoor pool at the new center. The indoor pool will feature the spoon-shaped, four-foot-, seven-foot, four-foot design. The indoor facility will be housed inside the building with a glass motif. The pool itself will be a six-lane, 25-meter pool.

The new 45,000-square-foot facility, which will be the first YMCA built in the Memphis and Shelby County area since the 1960s, will include the Olympic-size indoor pool as well as a day care, a kids gymnasium, meeting rooms, exercise equipment in a 5,000-square-foot wellness center, a gymnasium, an outdoor pool, racquetball courts, a fitness center, running track, aerobics, pace bikes, saunas, hot tubs, kitchen facilities and locker rooms.

The facility will also offer the wide variety of community and family programs for all ages that has become a trademark of YMCA. Day care, before and after school care, family programs, teen programs, youth sports, summer camps, and senior programs are some of the offerings that will be available through the YMCA at Schilling Farms, said Ms. Ballard.

In addition to raising money for the capital campaign, the YMCA of the Mid-South has also launched its annual membership drive this month.

Anyone joining this month will receive a gift package that will include a one-month gift membership to give to a friend as well as $15 worth of "Y" bucks that may be used toward the purchase of YMCA apparel and merchandise, massages, personal fitness training, swimming lessons, or child care, according to Ms. Ballard.