Crossroads YMCA announced a new Destination YMCA in Hammond Friday morning. This YMCA will be a partnership with the City of Hammond and the Dean & Barbara White Family Foundation. Together these two partners will provide primary funding for the new building, while bringing on matching donors from the community.
The facility boasts over 100,000 square feet of space, including features such as indoor and outdoor pools. The outdoor pool will have lap lanes, zero-depth beach entry, and all kinds of features for kids and families. This includes a small water park for play.
The building will house three gymnasiums. Alongside the gyms, there will be a track that is seven laps for a mile.
“Within a 12-minute drive of this site, there are 208,000 people,” said Jay Buckmaster, CEO of Crossroads YMCA. “There will be fitness opportunities for all ages and levels of fitness. We have made sure there will be water walking for therapy. Chronic disease, obesity, and inactivity continue to be those things we need to tackle, and in this facility, we believe we have the spaces to be able to do this and the partnerships to be able to make sure it will function for all people in the community.”
In addition to the array of features the facility will have, the draw of this site is how many individuals the YMCA will be able to serve. The expectation is for the facility to serve up to 50,000 people in North Lake County.
“This is an area that a lot of residents were writing off mentally. Like it was never going to be the same,” said Mayor Thomas McDermott, Jr. “But what we’ve done is we’ve rejuvenated it. It has a lot more business and a lot more tourism than the old mall ever had. It is a great way to reinvent ourselves.”
"The [White] family members got together and decided to take the [money] and help enrich parts of Northwest Indiana where Mr. White made his fortune," said McDermott. "They are gifting and rebuilding and renewing optimism and giving back. That's wonderful."
The City of Hammond intends to invest $10 million into this facility through donations. The Dean & Barbara White Foundation will match every dollar with a dollar and fifty cents to add to this funding. This rounds out to about $15 million of funding, but the project is $45 million overall.
“The White family has a mission to partner with the creation of facilities like this and programs that will have a catalytic effect on the neighborhoods in Northwest Indiana,” said Bill Hanna, Executive Director of the Dean & Barbara White Family Foundation.
“The Dean & Barbara White Foundation is very easy to work with because they are aligned with supporting the community. The Foundation wants to invest in our community, and that is a great match with the YMCA’s values and mission,” Buckmaster said. “It’s easy when those values align.”
The Destination YMCA is not only a good space for community building and fitness, but it will also help grow the city and the economy by drawing people to the City of Hammond.
Coverage of the event is posted on the City of Hammond’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/GoHammondIN/. To keep up with all the developments in the City of Hammond, visit https://www.gohammond.com/.
