LYNN — It’s birthday time for the Lynn YMCA.
The YMCA of Metro North on Monday announced plans for an extensive celebration of the Greater Lynn YMCA’s 150th anniversary as a fixture in Lynn. The observance will conclude with November’s opening of the 70,000 square-foot new YMCA building adjacent to the current facility. The year-long event kicks off Friday with the Lynn YMCA Community Campaign, which seeks to raise $150,000 in donations to help build the facility. The campaign hopes to encourage residents and businesses to support the Y through special programs, events, volunteer days and fundraising activities throughout 2020.
The Lynn YMCA is among the oldest branches in the Boston area, according to senior executive director Andrea Baez.
“The oldest is Huntington Avenue in Boston,” she said, “and then it’s Lynn.”
“The Y has played a vital role in the history of Lynn since we began serving its residents in mind, body and spirit 150 years ago,” Baez said “We are starting to write the next chapter in our story.
Baez said the new facility will help to ensure that there are enough health and wellness services for Lynn’s youth, senior citizens and families.
“Everyone who wants access to the Y has it,” Baez said.
Opened in 1870 on the corner of Market and Tremont streets, the Lynn Y has evolved into one of the largest private community service organizations in the area. It offers child care and youth development programs, services for seniors, programs for residents, and healthy living activities for all its members and the larger community.
The Y moved into its current facility on Neptune Boulevard in 1972 and now has secured a large portion of the financing to build a new facility. The $30 million project includes new early learning classrooms, an area designated as a clinic, a healthy café and teaching kitchen as well as a natatorium consisting of a lap pool, a teaching pool and an indoor splash pad. It will also have an entire floor dedicated to health and wellness, as well as gathering spaces.
The current building will be repurposed and become an expanded youth development center that the Y hopes will more than double the number of children, youth and teens it serves, and expand its overall programs and memberships to serve 12,000 people annually.
“Our goal has always been to serve the greatest number of people possible, regardless of their background, life circumstances, or their ability to pay,” said Kathleen Walsh, president and chief executive officer, YMCA of Metro North. “Together, with our partners and the people in the Greater Lynn region, we have the ability to change people’s lives in so many ways.
“This new facility is an investment in more than a building,” she said. “It’s an investment in a better future, full of possibilities.”
Donors will have access to the Lynn YMCA’s new facilities, and receive invitations to special events and tours of the facility in advance of the general public, she said. In addition, donors will be recognized through a digital plaque which will be located in the lobby of the new building upon opening.
“A new YMCA will help transform this community,” said Tom Demakes, CEO, Old Neighborhood Foods and Lynn YMCA Capital Campaign contributor. “The impact of this new facility will be felt on generations of families, and will give our kids even more places where they are safe with more opportunities to succeed.”
Information on how to donate, volunteer and participate in the community campaign and celebration of the Lynn YMCA can be found online at www.ymcametronorth.org.
Early records show that in 1873 the YMCA of Lynn served 392 children. Since then, the Greater Lynn Y, through its branch operations in downtown Lynn, Peabody and Saugus, has continued to evolve into one of the largest private community service organizations in the Greater Lynn area.
