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The new branch facility will offer exercise equipment, team sports, summer day camps and other activities.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2001
DADE CITY -- To the tune of the Village People song YMCA, a crowd of more than 70 elected officials, city employees, and residents cut the ribbon Saturday opening Dade City's first YMCA branch.
"To stand here in front of this YMCA today, I get goose bumps," east Pasco YMCA director Joe Mangione told the crowd. "I feel we really have filled a need in Dade City."
The grand opening was the product of more than two years of work by the city, the YMCA, volunteers and donors. More than $200,000 was raised for the effort by large and small donors, Mangione said.
The effort to lure a YMCA annex began in earnest with the loss of the Pasco Twin Theatre in 1999.
The movie theater's closing was seen as another loss for the city's young people and sparked a renewed interest in youth activities that has since led to the creation of the city's Recreation Advisory Committee and talk of building a public skateboard park.
From those early concerns, community leaders worked to bring the YMCA. The facility that opened Saturday in the city-owned Lindy C. Smith Civic Center houses exercise equipment and a nursery, but will also be the headquarters for a range of team sports, summer day camps and other programs organized by the "Y," Mangione said.
"We are just so thrilled to finally see the YMCA in Dade City," Mayor Scott Black said. "I know the people in Dade City have been waiting for this for quite a while."
Black and Mangione both said the new facility is just the beginning. They were both already talking about building a free-standing YMCA, with a swimming pool and other athletic facilities, in town once the small branch has proved it can lure a dedicated following.
As Black, Mangione, YMCA board member Bill Rinaldo and Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA Chairman Robert Gilbertson spoke, they all credited the hard work volunteers, YMCA staffers, city employees and donors contributed to make the branch a reality.
"Dade City deserves this facility," Rinaldo said.
The new annex will be open from 3-8 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays, until showers are completed, at which time the hours will be extended. Financial assistance is available for families unable to afford YMCA membership dues.
When the speeches were through, Miss Dade City, Kacee Urbuteit, stepped to the front of the crowd and cut the ribbon with scissors draped in bows.
Mangione turned to the crowd and announced, "Let's open the doors."