Q-Tips and Toothbrushes: The La Porte County Family YMCA Cleaning Story

Q-Tips and Toothbrushes: The La Porte County Family YMCA Cleaning Story

The La Porte County Family YMCA is making some major changes at their facility. The annual cleaning is nearly complete and it’s all bright and shiny and clean thanks to the very hard work and dedication of the YMCA staff and volunteers.

The facility was closed on August 28, 2015 and the reopen date will be September 8, 2015, the day after Labor Day. When members reenter the building they will see that the YMCA is so clean that they could eat their protein bars off the floor (not recommended though).

“We’ve been doing the annual preventative shutdown for the last nine years," Cindy Berchem, Executive Director of the La Porte County Family YMCA said. “The YMCAs in the area try to do their shutdowns one at a time so that members can still have a place to go when their home YMCA is closed for cleaning. We’re so thankful that we have the Elston branch so that our members don’t have to go too far.”

“We’ve cleaned everything in the building,” Caitlin Bladecki, Director of Administrative Services said. “We got in all the nooks and crannies with Q-tips, scrubbed with tooth brushes, no spot was missed… You don’t realize how much dirt accumulates throughout the year and we close the YMCA down for cleaning because there are some things you can’t do with people walking around trying to work out. We think that everyone will be very happy with the finished product when we open up again.”

Floors were scrubbed by hand, the groves in the stairs were swiped with sponges and Q-tips, rags wiped, vacuums hummed, and the fresh smell of various cleaners permeated the facility.

New coats of paint were applied to different parts of the building for a fresh, new look. The sidewalks outside were blasted with a power washer, and the two biggest undertakings were the revarnishment of the Shick Gym (it rivals the newly waxed look of an American muscle car), and the resurfacing of their pool.

“It’s a lengthy process, but it needed to be done,” Berchem said. “It will look beautiful once it is complete.”

So why not hire out to get all of the cleaning done?

“We wanted to keep membership fees down,” Berchem said. “And I feel that if we hired out the company that we chose would not care as much as we do about the finished product. The crew we have this year is great. I’m very picky about the cleanliness here and they have really stepped up and done well. And it’s actually been a fun process. We’ll turn the radios on and listen to music while we clean. We have lunch every day and when we’re all finished we’ll get a nice weekend off to relax and unwind.”

Cindy would make lunch for everyone every day – from scratch. She scoured Pinterest for new recipes and fed her crew well each and every day.

So for those who call the La Porte County Family YMCA their main health hub, just wait a few more days and your YMCA will be open once more, all clean and ready for you.