It’s been a while in the making but on Thursday night a ribbon cutting made it official - the Michigan City YMCA is now open for business. The La Porte County Family YMCA's newest addition to their group of YMCAs marks the return of a Y to Michigan City. Located at the former Elston Middle School, the previously abandoned building is now ready to be buzzing with families once again.
“Our staff has put a lot of hard work and elbow grease into cleaning the place up, so to see all of the pieces finally working together is so awesome,” La Porte County Family YMCA Cindy Berchem stated. “We’re thankful for the Michigan City School Board on working on this with us and after all of the time put into making Elston a YMCA, it’s great to see people now enjoying it. There’s still things to be added, but now everyone has the opportunity to be a part of a new Michigan City YMCA.”
Looking through the brand new YMCA it's easy to see why Cindy and the YMCA Board were so eager to make the building one of their own. Elston had a lot to offer the Y, which allowed them to insert a lot of different facilities throughout. There’s a swimming pool, two gyms, a cardio room, a strength and conditioning weight room, a child care center, arts classes, aerobics classes and many more things to offer.
The renovation of the building is still a work in progress - only the top half of Elston is functional with the bottom level still being worked on - but all of it will be open soon. Walking through the building, though, there’s a huge difference between the new and the old - with most of the rooms brightly painted with YMCA colors and new floors - but the Elston location is still bursting with history.
Many of the people who helped the YMCA staff celebrate the ribbon cutting have a personal history with Elston and knows how much the building means to their community. Indiana State Representative Scott Pelath was one of many who attended Elston in its heyday, and explained that the repurposing of the building is just what Michigan City needs.
“It’s a little strange walking through Elston and seeing the YMCA colors and not red, but it’s very exciting,” Representative Pelath stated. “Not having a YMCA for this community was a void they’ve had to deal with for too long and to have one in a city is extremely important. People need a healthy way to congregate and build a sense of community - and YMCAs do that.”
Nolah Gertner, who is on the La Porte County Family YMCA Board and was a big driving force to bring the Y to Elston, agreed by saying that having this now in Michigan City opens up a lot of opportunities for the city’s citizens.
“We initially thought that we would have a bunch of programs hosted at different locations throughout Michigan City but the opportunity arose to use Elston and it became a huge blessing.” Gertner explained. “This only the beginning of our stature here. We’ve partnered with the schools to give kids an after-school athletics program, there’s places for adults to work out, and so much more. The Y has always been here to help out our community in any way we can and this is only the start of what we can do.”
With more programs and features to be added in the future the Elston branch will certainly become a mainstay in the Michigan City community. There are plans for events to be hosted there (an all-star basketball game to be hosted in November for one), it will bring in people of all ages each day to use their facilities, and it will be a safe place for kids to hang out. The lack of a YMCA in the community has left a hole in the city for years, and it's a welcome homecoming for the Y. There will be a lot changing at the Elston branch, and the people of Michigan City are along for the ride.