The Knox County YMCA is celebrating recent improvements that it said will better serve the community.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce was held Tuesday for the Y’s newly completed expansion project. The Y added an indoor playground, outdoor wellness spaces, and a youth center.
YMCA CEO Adam Sampson told those who gathered for the event that the community came together to make the project possible.
“It was a beautiful marriage of public and private coming together to create something for a beautiful community like this,” he said.
The city provided a $900,000 grant to the Y to help pay for the work. The money came from $5 million in general obligation bond funds issued three years ago for “the acquisition, construction, or renovation of an existing facility for the purpose of a community center.”
The Y also conducted a capital campaign to help cover the estimated $1.92 million cost of the work.
Sampson emphasized the Y used local contractors for the project.
“So much talent in our community. Sometimes they cost a little more, but it was important to us that we use local guys. Local dollars were going to be spent with local guys, local organizations, local families were engaged in this. That’s a very huge part of who we are,” he said.
He said thousands of hours went into developing the project, and he said the youth center will fill multiple needs.
“Teenagers and kids can get a meal, hang out, have a place not just to play basketball, (but) to get homework help, to get tutoring, all types of things like that,” Sampson said.
Associate Executive Director Melissa Bryant said the Y provides thousands of meals through the USDA-funded Child and Adult Care Food Program.
“Now, our team prepares, packages, and distributes over 3,200 meals every single month to the local kids in our community,” Bryant said.
She said they have also been approved for the Summer Food Service Program, and that people don’t have to be a Y member to get a meal.
“This space is going to give us more room to feed kids, and we’re just extremely grateful to be able to expand on that because feeding our kids is so important,” Bryant said.
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department, please consider making a financial contribution.
