YMCA has promising opening

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - After nearly a year closed the Riverbank Fitness center re-opened in June as the YMCA of Vigo County. But with the past history of financial trouble for the facility, we checked in to see how the YMCA has fared these first few months.

Swimming laps and weight lifts bring a very different scene to the fitness center on the Wabash River. A center that for more than a year remained empty.

But in November of 2011 the YMCA of Clay County was awarded the lease for the building and in June of this year the doors finally opened on the new VIGO County YMCA.

“When we started the process of opening the Y we knew we needed community support. We needed a certain number of membership units in advance to know that it was really necessary and needed in the community,” YMCA CEO Deb Plummer said.

But, even the early estimates for the number of memberships they could bring in fell short of the Y's current numbers.

"We started on the 18th of June with 342 members and now we have 1047 membership units and that's over 2000 people that have committed to a year of being with the Y,” Plummer said.

The spike in memberships means a lot for the YMCA, they say going forward many of their programs will be funded internally.

"From this point on every new thing we start has to be self supporting. Every new program has to bring in enough revenue to cover it self. So we're feeling very comfortable with our financial position."

They've already started expanding by adding swimming lessons, aquatics programs, and even a room for those children too old for child watch and to young to work out.

Learning lessons from the past fitness center and moving forward in a new direction.

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