Donation Puts YMCA Closer to New Facility

Sure, the site isn’t much to look at now, just a sloping patch of wildflowers and weeds in the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains. In the near future, however, it will become the state-of-the-art home of the North Valley Family YMCA.

On Tuesday, the project took another step forward with a $50,000 donation from State Farm Insurance Co.

“We want to support the community,” said Regional Vice President Greg Jones, a longtime supporter who recalled his childhood struggle to integrate the YMCA in his native Columbus, Ohio. “The Y helps and supports youth. It reaches out to a broad spectrum of people.”

To date, the organization has gathered $4.9 million of the $6.7 million required to construct the new facility, said Executive Director Jane Stanton. The land was donated by the Porter Ranch Development Co.

Construction at the 3.3-acre site along Corbin Avenue north of Rinaldi Street will begin early next year with plans to open in early 1998, she said.

The 30,000-square-foot building will include an indoor swimming pool, locker rooms, exercise rooms, aerobics studios and a child-care center. Once the facility is completed, the Y will sell its current location in Mission Hills, where it’s been for 30 years, and relocate to the larger Chatsworth quarters.

Stanley Bryant, chairman of the project’s capital campaign, cited State Farm’s contribution as evidence of the support the center already has among San Fernando Valley businesses.

“It’s a great boost and a wonderful confirmation of the interest in this kind of project,” he said, adding that he hopes other Valley companies will make similar investments.

To Stanton, the new facility is intended to become an important part of the northern Valley, a community the Y has been serving since 1927. “We really want this to be a building that is for the community, that strengthens families,” she said.

For more information, call (818) 837-4490.