CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Jim and Lydia Crooks, of Clarion, are the latest to announce a $50,000.00 gift to help build a new full-service Clarion County YMCA.
(Photo: Jim and Lydia Crooks present a $50,000.00 gift for the new Clarion County YMCA to Campaign Cabinet Co-Chairs Al Lander and Milissa Bauer.)
“We love the Y for many reasons,” said Jim. “The Y’s services are available to everyone in the county — youth, families, singles, and seniors. Lydia and I feel that the Y represents everything that is good and is truly Christianity in action. The Y brings believers of all disciplines, uniting us together for the common good. We can’t build it by ourselves, but united together we will build it.”
The $8.1 million full-service Clarion County YMCA will be located near Exit 62 of I-80 and the Clarion Oaks Golf Course. The campaign’s silent phase has already raised over $5.4 million (almost 70 percent) from lead gifts and commitments by a small group of key individuals, including more than $600,000.00 in pledges from the local YMCA Board. A community campaign for the remaining $2.7 million is now being launched.
“After many years of serving on the Y board, it is truly humbling to see this dream and hope of a new full service Y built in Clarion County come to fruition,” said Crooks. “We feel that it’s our generation, the baby boom generation, which needs to step up, dig deep, and get behind this largest project funded by private gifts in the history of Clarion County.”
Crooks also said he is excited about teaching his granddaughter to swim at the new YMCA and encourages other gifts to the campaign as part of a legacy.
“We want to encourage all people of our generation to leave a legacy for and example to the future, just as our forefathers left us this wonderful, beautiful place to live and enjoy called Clarion County,” said Jim and Lydia.
The new project, among other facilities, will bring access to a four-lane lap swimming/therapy pool and other year-round recreation activities that the YMCA provides because of its 501(c) 3 status.
For more information about the campaign, contact Campaign Communications Coordinator Cindy Nave at 814-226-9722.
