By Staff
The Niles-Buchanan YMCA has been helping children and families from all over the Southwestern Michigan community for more than 50 years.
Now, the Y needs our help.
Our YMCA and Lakeland Regional Health Systems have joined together to create a new Y facility here - one that would provide state-of-art health equipment and instruction for our community, as well as providing access to those facilities for Lakeland rehabilitation patients.
The venture is so close to being a reality. However, as with most things, construction costs have increased dramatically since the project was conceived, and the YMCA needs to raise more money quickly to get the project under way.
The proposed new YMCA facility is vitally important to your Niles community, whether you would ever use it to work out personally or whether you have children who would ever benefit from the many programs that enrich lives and teach important values.
It's a project that would overall enhance the quality of life for everyone in the Greater Niles area and in places beyond, like Dowagiac, Cassopolis and Edwardsburg. Many families in those community already make use of the programs and offerings of the Niles-Buchanan YMCA.
And, whether you work out personally now or not, it's very likely you will in the future. We're aging as a society and the benefits of exercise are many.
Because of our lifestyle of watching television, playing video games and eating processed, pre-packaged foods, we're facing a very real health crisis brought on by the many complications of being overweight, such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Having a facility nearby, like the one the YMCA proposes to build, can make all the difference in the world when you're faced at working hard to change your lifestyle to one that's healthier. Take it from someone who knows: I drive to downtown South Bend to get the workout equipment and instruction I need, which has meant a much-improved quality of life for me, personally. I can't wait until the new YMCA is completed. Having such a facility here will save me, literally, about an hour a workout.
The new facility will be much larger than the current facility and will include:
The YMCA is scheduled to break ground in early fall on the new facility. If you haven't yet contributed to make it happen, please consider doing so quickly.
If you're not a YMCA member, why not join now? If you can write a check, please do so.
Our YMCA has a critical need right now. Let's do the right thing by it and ensure that it's serving our community the best way it can for many years to come.
For more information on the project or to find out how to give, please call Bret Hendrie at 683-1552.