Thursday, January 16, 2024
Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! I hope you had a chance to disconnect a little bit over the holidays and spend quality time with loved ones. The arrival of the New Year is often accompanied by some inspiration and the opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes. I hope you find the time to set some meaningful personal goals that will help empower you to live your healthiest and most fulfilled life. And please know that your Tampa YMCA is here for you, and your family, to assist with any of your 2025 wellness goals.
Staying with the “New” theme, we are off to a busy start! Our inaugural Patch with a Purpose partnership was celebrated at Amalie Arena on January 7th with great success. Our shared commitment to enrich lives and foster a healthy community spirit aligns seamlessly with the Lightning's values. It was a lot of fun to see our staff, board, and Tampa Bay community come together to celebrate this wonderful partnership. The night was capped off with an exciting Bolts win! Together, we are continuing to enhance the lives of children, families, and seniors in our community.
Speaking of which, last week we hosted the ribbon-cutting for our new Spurlino Family YMCA gymnasium. Since opening 6 years ago, the Spurlino YMCA has served over 100,000 unique individuals including more than 13,000 kids in youth sports programs and over 10,000 youth in our summer day camp programs. Beyond that, we have provided over $1.5 million in scholarships to local kids and families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to participate in our programs. We don’t turn anyone away. This truly has been a YMCA for all. Think about it, what an impact we’ve had in the past six years, and all without this beautiful gymnasium.
At over 18,000 square feet, the gymnasium addition is exactly what the community needed, and the celebration confirmed that. Within hours of opening, the new gym was already being put to great use as seniors were actively playing pickleball, friends were shooting hoops, and our families found a new place to connect and have fun at the Y. We are so very grateful to our donors and all of our partners who helped make this great new resource a reality.
There is much more to share as this New Year progresses. Stay tuned!
With appreciation,
Matt Mitchell
President & CEO