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Downtown Y set to begin a $5 million renovation in 2016
YOUNGSTOWN
Howard “Howdy” Friend of Poland joined the Central YMCA as an adult in March 1945 after recovering from shrapnel wounds suffered while serving in the Army during World War II in the Siege of Bastogne.
Friend, who lived on Youngstown’s South Side then and walked to the Central Y at 17 N. Champion St., said he learned a lot about life and how to work with people by coming to the Y.
“Here [the Central Y] and Camp Fitch set me up for the rest of my life,” he said.
Friend, who graduated from high school on D-Day, the Allies’ invasion of Normandy, spent 34 years in education and retired as superintendent of Mahoning County Joint Vocational School.
Friend was one of the hundreds of members, past and present, and the general public who visited the Central Y during its centennial open house Sunday afternoon.
The theme of the centennial is “Central Y Reconnects to its Past While Looking Toward its Future.
Guests were invited to relive Saturdays past at the Central Y when, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., hundreds of children packed the cafeteria lines of the Youngstown YMCA for snacks and Cherry Cokes before gathering to watch back-to-back feature films such as “The Little Rascals” and “Abbott and Costello.”
On Sunday, Cherry Coke flowed for the first time since the mid-1970s as part of the Central YMCA Centennial Celebration.
“As many as 1,000 kids would go through the cafeteria eating hot dogs, french fries and drinking Cherry Coke,” said Dick Bennett, chairman of the centennial committee. “That was a big deal, and we did it again at the open house.”
Dale Rair of Austintown, who has been an adult member for 61 years, said he still comes to the Y five days a week to do two hours of water running.
Retired now, he said that when he was with Equitable Life Insurance, upward of 60 percent of the people he did business with he met at the Y.
“The best thing about the Y are the great staff and the people I’ve met here,” Rair said.
William Harrell Jr. of Youngstown, a member of the Y’s board of trustees and past member of its executive board, got his start in 1948 with the West Federal Street YMCA, and became active with the Central Branch in 1990.
While Sunday was a day to look back and reconnect with the Y and friends, it was also a time to look forward, said Mike Shaffer, Central Y Branch director.
“We love our past, but we’re excited about our future, which includes a $5 million renovation project at the Central Branch which has two pools and three gyms,” he said.
He said lots of kids use the Y, including 1,000 in the basketball league and 241 on the competitive swim team.
But, Shaffer said, the renovated Y will feature after-school and performing-arts programs that will attract kids and their families.
“Arts and humanities are a way to connect with kids. You don’t always think of these things at the Y,” he said.
This will be the area’s first major YMCA project since the construction of the D.D. & Velma Davis Family YMCA in Boardman in 2003. The YMCA saw its membership triple to more than 17,000 with the addition of the Davis YMCA, he said.
Shaffer said the Youngstown YMCA, which includes the Central Branch at 17 N. Champion St.; the Davis Family YMCA at 45 McClurg Road in Boardman; and Camp Fitch in North Springfield, Pa., said establishing a Y in Austintown is “on the table.”
“We’re in the quiet phase of our campaign looking for support,” he said.