SARASOTA – Thursday night thousands of members packed the Frank G. Berlin Sarasota YMCA to celebrate the new deal that saved the two Sarasota Y locations from closing their doors to the community.
“I have a hard time believing this actually happened,” said Lucia Barrett.
Barrett and Jim Becherer, Co-Organizers of Save Our Y, say the fight is far from over for the members as there is still a lot of work to be done.
“It was a whole community effort that made this a reality,and I want to give e big thanks to the community,” said Becherer.
The new deal comes just weeks after interim CEO Steve Bourne announced the closures of the Frank G. Berlin and Evanlyn Sadlier Jones branches. The proposed deal between Dreamers Academy, Save Our Y, and Project Stoked will re-brand the locations as the Sarasota Y.
“We’re going to be transparent, member inclusive in everything that we do,” said Barrett. “I mean that’s the way it’s supposed to work and that’s the way we promise it will work.”
Dreamers Academy plans on building a new bilingual charter school in the fall of 2020. The Sarasota Family YMCA will keep the fitness centers open while Save Our Y raises the funds to keep the Y up and running.
Former COO of the Sarasota YMCA Jim Purdy came out of retirement and will serve as the new interim president. “I knew how important it was to us, I knew how important it was to people as I was growing up. It, would’ve been a travesty to see these facilities no longer here,” said Purdy.
The new board at the Sarasota Y does not plan on raising members fees or eliminate any existing programs, but will have to cut cost somewhere.
The group has to raise $ 1.5 million by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2020 to eliminate the debt the Y locations has acquired. Save Our Y has raised more than $645,000.