WORCESTER- A cold wind whipping off Indian Lake kept people bundled up and sent the children’s construction hats flying across the lawn.
But come summer, the children and their families will be frolicking among splashing water in an outdoor water park as part of a $3.5 million project to improve the Greendale Family Branch of the YMCA and adjacent Shore Park.
“As you continue to invest in this facility, you are investing in our community, you are investing in its people,” City Manager Edward M. Augustus Jr. said during the project’s official groundbreaking Friday morning at the Greendale Family YMCA. “This is an integral part of our community, it’s one of the things that makes Worcester a special place.”
Worcester, MA. – The YMCA of Central Massachusetts invites the media and the public to join in celebrating the start of construction at the Greendale Family Branch. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the branch on Friday, October 16, 2015 at 10:00a.m, 75 Shore Park Drive, Worcester, MA.
At the Greendale Family Branch there is something for everyone! Two large swimming pools provide swimming lessons and activities for all. The Seniors love the warmth of the 4-foot deep therapeutic pool. Parents and preschoolers have lots of fun climbing and crawling in the specially designed Kids Gym. Teens enjoy fun and physical activity in their teen center. One can always schedule individual or group personal training sessions, take and exercise class and plug into the computer monitor for “fitness on demand”. This branch also has six indoor clay tennis courts, staffed with a highly skilled and professional tennis instructor – private lessons are available. And if that’s not enough, join in on a pick-up basketball game in the gymnasium.
The Greendale Family Branch Community is expanding and the projects include:
Family Splash Pad: An outdoor water playground that will entertain children of all ages, connect families together and provide a fun and friendly environment to enjoy on warm days of summer.
Expanded Wellness Center: an addition to the current Wellness Central with a new functional training zone to offer diverse and innovative fitness programs for people of all ages to meet their fitness goals.
TENNIS UPGRADES: Reinvesting in your tennis experience and supporting the next generation of tennis players makes the Y great tennis destination.
Construction will also include lobby revitalization, refreshed locker rooms and bathrooms.
“For six and a half decades, the Greendale Family Branch has strengthened the community. The 150th Anniversary Capital Campaign will continue our legacy of impact through significant reinvestment,” said Kathryn Zingg Hunter, President/CEO of the YMCA of Central Massachusetts. “Join us as we break ground to transform Greendale… inside and out, she continued.
Westborough – Following a particularly successful summer camp season, the Boroughs Family Branch YMCA in Westborough is set for an approximately $4 million construction project including a two-story addition and a new outdoor aquatics center. The facility’s six-lane indoor swimming pool has been popular since the Boroughs Y opened in November 2002, noted Betsy Moquin, the director of marketing and advancement.
“The pool is really one of the hubs here at the Y that gets the most use,” she said. “Depending upon the season, we have anywhere from 1,100 to 1,300 kids a week in youth swim lessons. That doesn’t count adult lessons, water aerobics classes, lap swims and family swims. For a long time, staff observations and members’ comments have been that we need another pool.”
A $4 million construction project that includes a new aquatics center and a two-story addition will begin soon at the Boroughs Family Branch YMCA in Westborough.
Betsy Moquin, director of marketing and advancement, noted to the Community Advocate that the indoor swimming pool has been popular since it opened in 2002.
Since it is the “hub” and gets the most use at the club, the aquatics program is one that will be expanded upon. The construction project’s facets are the result of a survey conducted among Y members, where responders suggested the second pool outdoors.
The summer camp season was the busiest ever, making the timing of the project ideal, reported the Community Advocate.
The addition will expand the multipurpose wellness space, and also give a home to Livestrong at the YMCA, which as a 12-week program to help cancer survivors and their caregivers.
