Courtesy of the YMCA
Expansion plans for the El Camino YMCA call for new youth and teen centers, a new aerobics room and wellness center, and a new gymnasium. Officials hope to raise at least $1 million in time for a possible June groundbreaking. An official "kick-off' is set for the week of Feb. 22.
Special to the Town Crier
The El Camino YMCA is kicking off the community phase of a capital campaign to raise $3.5 million towards construction of a 32,000-square-foot addition to its building at 2400 Grant Road in Mountain View.
Executive Director Ron Markillie said the project is not an expansion but a completion of what was originally planned for the facility when it was designed in the early 1980s. At that time, he said, there wasn't enough funding to complete the entire project.
The delay has given the YMCA time to evaluate community needs and potential uses for the expanded space.
Markillie said the El Camino YMCA analyzed its own program resources and conducted a series of community focus groups prior to completing the design for new construction. Organizers also consulted with other nonprofit agencies to assure that the YMCA was providing complementary services, not competitive ones, he said.
The results, Markillie said, indicated a need for more teen space and more youth programs. "We also realized a need for more family-type activities," he said.
The new space, which more than doubles the building's size, will include a new aerobics and wellness center and new gymnasium. New youth and teen centers are also in the design. The former aerobics space will be converted to multipurpose rooms.
"Our youth sports program is one of the drivers for the gymnasium," Markillie said. "We've had to turn away several hundred kids from our basketball program because there's not enough space."
The basketball program currently serves 1,200 children and has a waiting list of nearly 500 names, according to Anne Marie Krogh, vice president of financial development for YMCA of the Mid-Peninsula.
Markillie said that teens will be actively involved in planning uses for the teen center. The YMCA created a teen department several years ago. Krogh said that "kids involved recruit other kids."
According to Markillie, the El Camino YMCA has already raised $1.5 million, including $750,000 from William Hewlett and a "significant gift" from the Krause Family Foundation. Fund raising was briefly on hold, he said, while the YMCA renegotiated its lease with the El Camino Hospital District, which owns both the land and the building.
Results of that negotiation, concluded in late 1998, included a new 50-year lease and additional collaborative projects between the two organizations.
"I would like to thank the hospital district," Markillie said. "The fact that we're on their property is a generous donation, as is our new 50-year lease."
Krogh emphasized that YMCA memberships help the organization fund a range of outreach programs including on-site, school-based child care programs throughout Mountain View and Los Altos, and Family First counseling services done in connection with the Community Health Awareness Council.
"By joining the YMCA you're helping a whole community," she said.
The El Camino YMCA is seeking volunteers as well as donors. For information, call Markillie at 964-7201.