YMCA Gets $100,000 Toward New Facility

Directors of the Simi Valley Family YMCA couldn’t have asked for a better beginning for its campaign to raise funds for construction of a new facility.

At Tuesday’s official announcement of the group’s “The Time Is Now” fund-raiser, scheduled to begin Feb. 22, the YMCA received a $100,000 gift from Countrywide Home Loans toward the estimated $2 million needed to build the facility.

“It’s a tremendous gesture,” said Jim King, executive director of the Simi Valley Family YMCA. “This will certainly take us a long way toward reaching our goal.”

Beginning next month, the YMCA will begin raising the money needed to fund construction of a 23,000-square-foot facility where the current Simi Valley Police Station is situated at Cochran and Galena streets.

The five-acre facility will include an indoor aquatics center--featuring both a lap and hydrotherapy pool--a fitness center, meeting rooms, offices and a child-care center.

Calabasas-based Countrywide Home Loans decided to make the donation several months ago as part of its charitable outreach program.

“Our company has a long-term vested interest in the quality of life in this area, as we employ more than 1,500 people in our Simi Valley regional facilities,” said Anne McCallion, Countrywide’s managing director of human resources. “Because of that, the YMCA is the perfect organization for us to support.”

The gift will be paid to the YMCA over five years.

King said he hopes to begin construction late this year or early next year for a scheduled opening in January 2000.