The Y That Sumner Built | Sumner Mayor Update
Published 2:46 pm Thursday, September 17, 2015
The following is written by Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow:
You’ve probably read all about the Gordon Family YMCA opening in the newspaper. Perhaps you’ve already worked out there yourself (many have)! What I want to emphasize is that this is a facility that the entire Sumner community built. It started over eight years ago with a group of residents meeting at City Hall on a Saturday morning to talk about the longstanding problem of “nothing to do” in Sumner. From there, this journey began.
At the opening last weekend, the YMCA thanked quite a few people, especially the donors and the Y staff. I’d like to also add all the people who sat through meetings, who put support signs in their yards, who ran or attended fundraisers like Girls Night Out, who became Charter Members, and who kept asking at Community Summits and Youth Forums when it would open. There’s also the City staff, from the staff member who noticed the land for sale to the planners, engineers, accountants and pretty much everyone in City Hall who provided support for not only building the structure but also the unseen needed infrastructure. There’s also the City Council whobelieved the financial commitment was worth it – over and over again voting their support for the project. I wish I could name specific names, but there are simply too many. And each is equally important. If you pull one thread out, the whole thing unravels.
As thousands of people begin to go through those doors to get healthy, to strengthen their muscles and to meet friends and neighbors, please remember that many, many of you made it happen. And in doing so, you strengthened the community of Sumner with a great new asset. Thank you.
