Coral Gables RotaryGram: YMCA 5th Friday Get Together

It's not the YMCA You Remember!

Several dozen Rotarians, Rotaractors, Spouses and Friends met at the Allapattah YMCA for our July 5th Friday Social last evening. Besides the good food and the fellowship we had a rare opportunity to get a personal tour of what is probably the only YMCA of it's kind in the entire country!

First of all, for those of you who don't know, our club has developed a tradition of having fellowship evenings every month that has five Fridays. On the 5th Friday we get together and enjoy a couple of hours of cocktails and munchies. In the old tradition of Rotary, we always try to have the event at a member's place of business. We like to learn about what our friends do outside of Thursday meetings. We keep it inexpensive (thanks entirely to the generosity of Elizabeth Lovables) and charge $10 per person to cover the bare costs of the food. It only lasts two hours and many of our members use it as an excuse to start out their Friday evenings with cocktails anyway, so why not do it with your Rotary friends, right?

Our host for the evening was Rotarian Pat Morris, who, in his regular, daily routine is the Chief Development Officer for the YMCA Allapattah. Pat (who broke his ankle eight weeks ago and hasn't been seen again until this even), is seen here with Kathryn Custler, the Director of the Y's Community Center. They explained why it is this YMCA has charted new territory for completely integrating the organization into the community.

Twelve years ago, when our Club did Community Service at the YMCA, at the MLK Infant & Toddler Center, this was a small building that was struggling to offer day care for the busy Allapattah neighborhood where it is located. Today, it is a modern facility with two separate apartment towers, a community center, a wellness center, day care, a state of the art fitness center and much, much more.

The YMCA owns 60 acres of land that was given to them by the Flipse family many, many years ago. The YMCA in Miami was actually started by a bunch of Rotarians include Dr. James Jackson, Flipse and the Shutts of Shutts & Bowen. Five or so years ago they were fortunate to partner with several major developers of Affordable Housing Tax Credit projects and so today what you see is an impressive development that fulfills a great many needs in this community. It has 90 apartments in one tower that are solely occupied by senior citizens, 55 and older. The other tower of 110 apartments is for working class families, known as "workforce housing," low to low-middle income families. Now the YMCA has the most beautiful facilities in the country and all they have to do is raise $500,000 every year to offer their programs and staff the facility. No rent. No taxes. Just the best programs that their donors can provide... here's a few photos from our tour.

This is the Pre-School

A beautiful Fitness Center

From the minute you walk into the facility you're reminded that the YMCA is all about children and families. They are funded in part by United Way, Children's Trust and many local, major corporations. We want to say "Thank You" to Pat Morris and Kathryn Custler for allowing us the opportunity to party at their place on Friday. Should you find yourself in that neighborhood, stop in and see the facility. It's pretty amazing.