Stepping forward

• The New YMCA

A view of the lobby at the new Worthington Area YMCA. (BRIAN KORTHALS/DAILY GLOBE)

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• Gallery: Worthington Area YMCA and City Aquatics Center

WORTHINGTON — Many individuals have helped the Worthington Area YMCA-DeGroot Family Center and City of Worthington Aquatics Center become a reality, including two men who first teamed up 11 years ago to lead a discussion on the Y’s future.

Mark Shepherd and Greg DeGroot were co-chairs of the initial Capital Campaign Committee that first met in November 1998.

“I had just finished my two terms on the YMCA Board of Directors and I was a past president,” DeGroot remembered recently. “The current board president and vice president came out and asked if I would consider chairing the campaign. I said if Mark Shepherd would co-chair, I would, too.”

“That was just to explore the possibility of doing something about the old building downtown,” Shepherd added. “Could we raise money to remodel it, or raise money to do something in a different location? We were trying to figure out if we should try to sink more money into downtown … and we knew we needed to have some major capital expenses.”

One year later, said Shepherd, the YMCA/Community Center Committee was formed. That group’s first meeting took place in November 1999 and continued to convene for several years.

“It turned into a building committee,”Shepherd said,“and that’s when we started trying to figure out, ‘Where do we want to be?’ We went out and conducted a survey of people who active in the community and knowledgeable about the YMCA. … The results of the survey were pretty well split — a third, a third, a third.”

The Worthington campus of Minnesota West Community and Technical College was one of those three choices, and Shepherd said the Minnesota West location had been looked at since the initial 1998 meeting on the Y’s future.

“The partnership with MnSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) — that also took a lot of work to get the right people interested in that,” Shepherd said. “I really have to credit former president Ron Wood. He had a vision of wanting to see that YMCA on the Minnesota West Worthington campus since day one. He is the one person who probably made that happen more than anyone else.”

Besides Wood and an eventual agreement with MnSCU that allowed the city of Worthington and the YMCA to lease the land on the Minnesota West campus for 40 years — “something that ordinarily wouldn’t happen,” Shepherd said — the project also moved forward with a huge assist from city leaders. With a summer-only outdoor pool in decaying condition and inferior indoor swimming facilities at the old Y site, city officials began to weigh their options.

“We had been tracking the days of use at the outdoor pool and came up with a pretty good average over a 10-year period,” Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh said. “I think 77 was the calculated average of the number of days it was open each year. If you figure your summer has 90 days and you have 77 days of usage … the key thing is we wanted to provide year-round opportunity.”

Oberloh wasn’t yet mayor when discussion about the YMCA’s future began, and he also pointed out that representation on the Worthington City Council changed significantly from 1998 until the project gained major momentum.

“You look at the number of people involved in conversations about it, and it took a long time before the city fathers and the YMCA could come to a number,” Oberloh said. “Unfortunately, prices went up over that time. … But there’s a long track record of the city and the YMCA being involved with cooperative efforts as far as programming going back to the 1950s.”

On April 30, 2008, Worthington City Council members voted unanimously to allocate approximately $4.5 million for a cityowned aquatics center, which would be part of the new Y. The City of Worthington Aquatics Center would be managed by the YMCA staff, and the pool facilities leased to the Y.

“In fact, this probably gets us further away from day-to-day management than we have in the past,” Oberloh said. “I’ve been at some four-year colleges and seen the swimming facilities, and I’d put this right with them. In smalltown southwest Minnesota, I think we’ve got something to be really proud of.”

While the city was contributing significantly to the project with its aquatics center, Shepherd and DeGroot were continuing to spearhead fundraising efforts. The Capital Campaign Steering Committee met for the first time in June 2006, and the first phase of fundraising — the “quiet phase” — included contacting businesses and individuals who committee members felt were capable of giving large sums.

It was DeGroot, though, who was likely most instrumental in the fundraising effort, as the president of Highland Manufacturing Inc. offered a half-million dollars on behalf of Highland to the YMCA building effort in November 2005.

“There were some conditions put on it, some time frames,” DeGroot said of the gift, “and we met them. It got the fundraising going. … It all came together, and the community responded very well. That gift was the means to the end, and it was just a great kickoff.”

DeGroot made an additional gift of $500,000 in 2007, and that generosity was undoubtedly a factor in the naming of the DeGroot Family Center. DeGroot laughed when telling the story of how he learned what the facility would be called.

“I got a call from Andy (Worthington Area YMCA executive director Johnson) about four months ago, and he said, ‘Greg, it’s time to pick a name for the building,’” DeGroot recalled. “He said he and Mark had talked about a couple of ideas, and I said, ‘Pick one; I really don’t care.’ The DeGroot Family Center was the second choice; the first choice was the Shepherd-Johnson Family Center. So we went with the second choice.

“It’s a terrific honor,” DeGroot added. “For generations of families to go through that building with your name, it’s a tremendous honor.”

Additional fundraising came via the second fundraising phase, the Pacesetter Campaign — chaired by Bruce Viessman and Kathy Lesnar — and a mass mailing throughout the region was the third capital campaign phase. Money continued to come in, resulting in — 11 years after that initial November 1998 meeting — Saturday’s dedication of the Worthington Area YMCA-DeGroot Family Center and City of Worthington Aquatics Center.

“Once the initial gift happened, I just knew it would be the spark that would make the facility happen,” DeGroot said. “The facility grew financially and physically from what I thought it would be, and that’s why the fundraising has been quite lengthy. We’re not done today, we still have some funds to raise, but we’ll get there.

“It’s just an exciting day. When it opens next Monday, it will be an exciting asset to the community that I will be proud of and the community will be just as proud of.”

Added Shepherd: “You see the facility and I think it’s a tremendous accomplishment that a community of Worthington’s size can not only have a YMCA, but a new facility with all the amenities this offers, including the City of Worthington Aquatics Center, which is definitely a step up in recreational swimming for the community.

“It’s also a real credit to our community and the individuals and businesses that stepped forward and were generous. And the city … that was far-sighted and generous of the city council.”

Oberloh noted that he was “thoroughly impressed” during a tour of the new facility last week, and he encouraged all to pay a visit.

“I welcome everyone on behalf of the city — come and tour it,” he said. “It’s your facility.”

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