Great news to share this week! Rob's Blog

Dear Friends of the YMCA:

I am very happy to be sharing some good news with you of the past week.

You may have already heard of the success of this year’s George E. Smith Memorial Fire Truck Pull, held this past Saturday. The goal of $50,000 was set by Ian McFall, event chair and and executive vice president of foodservice and industrial sales, and government relations with Burnbrae Farms Limited.

The amount raised stands at a whopping $63,767.15. Congratulations and a full year’s bragging rights goes to the fastest team and winner of this year’s pull, the Brockville Fire Department who raced to the finish in 30 seconds!

The Y is extremely grateful to Ian and the team at Burnbrae Farms. They have gone the extra mile to make this year’s event to take us past our fundraising goal. I also want to send thanks to our sponsors, the participants and everyone who donated to support a team.

More good news came our way on Tuesday night when Kingston city council approved a recommendation from city staff that the YMCA of Eastern Ontario should manage the fitness centre at the new Kingston East Community Centre, which is opening in early 2022.

Lacricia Turner, director, recreation & leisure services with the City of Kingston said: “The majority of programs at this new facility will be delivered through community partnerships like this one with the YMCA. With its expertise in running multi-functional fitness spaces and programming, the Y is a good fit to operate the centre.”

The Y has a long and service-oriented history in Canada, where we have stepped in to fill diverse community needs; providing our programs and services to KECC is in line with our approach of strengthening local partnerships as we have done throughout the pandemic.

We also made a presentation to Gananoque town council, providing them with a report on the achievements of the teen program that we ran over the summer. This success inspired a local business to donate $2,000 to the program for next year’s program.

ECE Appreciation Day

Today is ECE Appreciation Day and I want to give my thanks to our wonderful childcare staff in Brockville and Kingston. They have certainly been amazing during this pandemic, able to take on emergency childcare and flip back and forth between that and regular care as required. I could not be more proud of them and the work they do. In my books, they are real heroes.

Vaccination clinics

On Friday, October 29, we will be hosting another vaccination clinic in partnership with public health. It will run from 1 to 7 p.m. Signs in the parking lot will direct you to enter the Y at the tennis courts.

We will also be hosting a vaccination clinic at Kingston YMCA on November 11. Details to follow.

Next week

Next week, I will connect with representatives from Brockville city council and my colleague from Youth Diversions to discuss enhancing our partnership in providing healthy and positive programs and services to youth in our area.

Wishing you and your family well,

Rob Adams
CEO, YMCA of Eastern Ontario