Gainesville community works to save its YMCA

Gainesville residents and YMCA employees have spent the last week relentlessly trying to save their community center.

Earlier this month, North Central Florida’s YMCA announced it would close for good at 9 p.m. Dec. 30 due to insurmountable debt. The center, 5201 NW 34th Blvd., needs $1.2 million to stay open, which doesn’t include approximately $300,000 needed for additional repairs and renovations.

On Dec. 16, an anonymous donor pledged $600,000 in an effort to help, and with only eight days left to save the YMCA members have raised an additional $123,000.

The closing of the 49-and-a-half-year-old Gainesville chapter would leave seven full-time and 82 part-time staff members without work, and approximately 5,000 members without multi-purpose facilities, including affordable childcare.

Members are now using Facebook and GoFundMe pages in an effort to raise the rest of the money and save the organization. 

Longtime member of the YMCA Leslie Galloway, 28, created the Facebook page “NCF YMCA Advocates,” in order to alert members of upcoming meetings and to track fundraising progress.

“Within two hours of creating it, there were over 100 members,” Galloway said, adding that turnout at meetings has been significant.

Galloway’s family has been members of the YMCA for more than 30 years and, if it closes, her 18-year-old sister will lose her part-time job.

“I don’t think she will be as negatively affected as some of the full-time employees who really depend on that job,” Galloway said.

This YMCA chapter membership numbers are at an all time high, with more than 2,000 children and 1,800 senior citizen members, she said.

The YMCA’s current CEO, John Bonacci, said if fundraising efforts aren’t enough and the YMCA can’t be saved, members who use the organization’s child care program will most likely have a difficult time finding affordable alternatives.

Bonacci explained that most other comparable programs are at capacity with long waiting lists, and programs without a wait are typically too expensive for low-income families.

The YMCA offers a variety of membership options, all between $40 and $100 a month, giving those who join access to sports programs, fitness classes and a wellness and aquatic center, as well as child care.

When Bonacci started working at the YMCA in 2011, the organization was $9 million in debt, operating at 56 percent efficiency. Today, Bonacci said it is operating at 92 percent efficiency and debt has dropped to $3.6 million.

The Gainesville chapter filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and has been fighting its debt for more than 15 years, she said.

Bonacci is soliciting help from anyone who may be willing to make donations to help the organization escape its debilitating debt, which he said built up in the ten years prior to when he started working there about five years ago.

“It was debt that took years to accumulate, and it’s debt that we just haven’t had the resources to pay off,” Bonacci said. “This is not something we’ve gotten into because of the way we’ve operated in the last five years.”

Bonacci said the staff members -- overworked and underpaid -- have been steadfast in their efforts to save the YMCA, which needs almost half a million dollars more in donations to stay open.

He said the YMCA is doing everything possible to save the chapter and raise the rest of the money needed to keep its doors open.

“We’ve been here for 49-and-a-half years, and I’d really like to see us celebrate our 50 year anniversary,” he said.