Led by its volunteer board of directors, the local YMCA has completed its capital fund drive to raise the needed funds for phase II construction of its facility, located at 2400 Grant Road in Mountain View.
As a result, a groundbreaking ceremony for the new addition is scheduled for 10 a.m., Saturday, at the site near El Camino Hospital. Phase II provides an additional 32,000 square feet of program space, including a new gymnasium and teen and youth center.
Families and individuals are welcome and encouraged to attend the morning groundbreaking, followed immediately by the YMCA’s annual Healthy Kids Day event at 11 a.m.
Major contributions for the project include $750,000 from the William Hewlett Foundation, $200,000 from theWilliam and Gay Krause Family Foundation and $50,000 from the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation. Both the Kirsches and the Krauses live in Los Altos Hills.
The bulk of the additional funds was raised by a coalition of community volunteers in a grassroots fund-raising drive.
“The YMCA is one of the great non-profit organizations that makes an impact on the life of the community every day,” said Tom Moran, who headed the fund-raising campaign. “This new addition will give new opportunities to serve children in the community for years to come.”
The new gymnasium will allow the enormously popular youth basketball program to be expanded. This year, 1,200 kindergartners through eighth-graders participated, while hundreds more filled waiting lists, unable to play due to lack of gym space.
According to Ron Markillie, executive director, the teen center will offer leadership training and Family First counseling services (a partnership between the El Camino YMCA and the Community Health Awareness Council), and serve as headquarters for the YMCA Youth & Government program and the YMCA Youth Advisory Council.
The target date for completion of the renovations is summer 2002.
Currently, the El Camino YMCA serves more than 8,000 residents in its array of programs, said Gigi Pettey, associate executive director.
There will be even more to celebrate on Saturday, as the El Camino YMCA recently received a $100,000 campaign grant from The Valley Foundation, bringing the YMCA’s campaign total in gifts and pledges to $3 million.
The Valley Foundation historically focuses more than 50 percent of its philanthropic giving to meet the health needs of lower-income families.
The YMCA of the Mid-Peninsula was first established in 1893 and now has five branches and 12 child-care programs, serving Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Redwood City, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Atherton, Woodside, Half Moon Bay, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Stanford.
