Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it is 816, still some light rain in portions of the Finger Lakes, temperature at 42. Joining us now is Laura Clary, she is a Senior Health and Wellness Director from the Auburn YMCA. Laura, it's been a minute since you and I have had a chance to chat, how are you doing today?
Laura Clary: I'm doing very well, thank you. And we have a lot to talk about because things have been cooking along at the Auburn YMCA. You're now in partnership with multiple insurance carriers, tell me about that.
Paul Szmal: Yes, that's the really most exciting news. We keep adding more and more to help with individuals gain their membership at no cost to them. So Silver Sneakers has finally come on board with us. That's primarily the Aetna Humana plans. And we have Silver and Fit, that's primarily out of Excellus, and then the Renew Active, which is a UnitedHealth benefit. So what that does is double check with your insurance carrier, because everybody's got these little, you know, small fine print things, but generally, they cover your membership at the whole cost of your membership, so that you can become a Y member and enjoy all that we have to offer.
Laura Clary: Yeah, it's crazy. This is great news, though.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Yes. Silver Sneakers has been our nemesis, I guess, or Achilles heel that we haven't been able to get at. And we finally reached an agreement with them that works for everybody. So yeah, we're really, really excited for all of this, because, you know, it primarily targets the older demographic. And we have a lot to offer, you know, beyond the social connections that they will make. We have a lot of falls prevention programs, we have arthritis programs, we have just your general in and out of chair, we have general gentle yoga, chair yoga. So we're staggering things at different times of days, we have a ton of aquatic classes, because that can also feel amazing to any aching body of any age. So yeah, there's a lot going on in that realm.
Laura Clary: Yeah, you mentioned a falls prevention program, there is a national falls prevention program the Auburn YMCA has been a part of, which is called our Moving for Better Balance.
Paul Szmal: Yes. So that program, the organ or the developers of it, partnered with the YMCA. It's the National Council on Aging. And then it goes through the YMCA. And it is called Moving for Better Balance. It is borrowed Tai Chi movements, works over 12 weeks, we meet 12 twice a week for an hour. And we just progress you through 12 forms. And you learn how to kind of, you know, adjust your balance to hopefully prevent a fall, nothing is completely preventable. But we are trying to lower that risk of falls through movement.
And the Finger Lakes Mall was amazing to partner with us. So we are offering it up at the mall. Currently, we're going to start a new session at the end of January, middle of January. Because it's on the bus route, you can park right outside the door, we have our own restroom, it's a well lit place. So we checked a lot of boxes, it's, you know, out of the city. So maybe we're hitting some of those rural communities that, you know, it's closer to. So I'm really, really excited that the mall agreed to do another session with us.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. And we would suggest if you want to be a part of that class when it's offered in January to contact the Auburn YMCA to get on the call list. What's the phone number they can use for that, Laura?
Laura Clary: So that's 315-253-5304. And you just say you want to be on the list for the Moving for Better Balance program. And what I will do is I'm going to start calling from that list, especially since we just locked in the dates two days ago, and start registering people. We went from 15 to 30 people within a week for this current session. So we decided to try it this way, to try to get some people in who were unable to get into the session that we're finishing now.
Paul Szmal: And if you missed that phone number, we'll give it to you at the end of the conversation here. We're talking with Laura Clary from the Auburn YMCA here on FLX Morning. Past couple of times around, we've had a chance to talk to the new CEO, Scott Sensorbeau. He has been one busy cat here, especially with a lot of the renovations and improvements that have been happening.
Laura Clary: Yes, he has. I describe it as we've gone from zero to 200, and we are learning to run at 200 miles an hour. The amount of renovations and things that are happening in his first six months, I've been there 33 years. I haven't seen move this fast ever. I'm super excited. I have some fitness areas that have been much needed of renovations. We have a brand new functional training space, and that's finishing up in the next two weeks with all new top-of-the-line equipment. And then our main cardio room is getting an expansion, and the teaser that you're hearing is going to be eGym, which is an amazing circuit line that will be adaptable for all people. I'm not going to give too much more because we haven't put it fully out yet, but it will be here in January, as well as brand new cardio equipment in that space.
Paul Szmal: Yes, and also a new child watch area?
Laura Clary: Yes. So, the child watch area is being opened up in the next couple weeks also, so members can come in, work out in the afternoon, evenings. Right now, we're only doing evenings, and your child is in a safe space, and no charge for that as a member, so that's a nice benefit.
And then we have some community events that I really have to make sure I target on. We have, with Scott, he's bringing us back to some good old-fashioned fun again, and we're doing a Holly Holiday community event, I think is the official name. It's going to be on December 19th, and so from 3 to 6, the community is welcome to come into our facility. We're going to have some vendors, of which we still have some open spots, so if anybody listening has a nice skill set or craft or something that they want to present and sell, you can contact us about that. We have Perform for Purpose, playing some great holiday music, along with good old Santa. So that is just going to be a great, open-to-the-community event within our facility. Again, that's December 19th from 3 to 6. We'd love to see people come out for that.
Paul Szmal: There are a couple of other events that are of interest for folks that are coming up. November 24th is a Paint and Sip event, kind of going again with that old-school theme.
Laura Clary: Yes, so Paint and Sip, a child of 5 and up comes with an adult, whatever your adult is. You can bring more than just those two. If you have another child, there's another little fee with that, but they're going to do this in the B Gym, and family-friendly sipping, and you're going to do a painting creation together, another of that, and then we're offering a drop-in shop, so if parents have last-minute Christmas shopping to do, or maybe just want a quick night out for a couple hours from 4 to 7 on 12-22, that definitely will have registration, too. But if you look at our website, that information will be up, or always contact our membership director or the membership staff at 53 number, 5304.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I think that drop-in shop and the timing of that is perfect because so many people will wait until the last minute to do their holiday shopping. I mean, I've done it before. I don't do it now, but I've done it before, and when you have kids, it's really a handful sometimes.
Laura Clary: Right, plus the kids have like two weeks off this year, I believe, so if nothing else, go to dinner and gear up for the week of having children home for two weeks.
Paul Szmal: Right, right. We want to refer back again to the Moving for Better Balance program that's going to be offered again in January. So again, if you want to get on the call list for this, and we'd suggest you do this soon, what's the phone number again, Laura?
Laura Clary: It's 315-253-5304. And the upcoming community events and registration for those will be on the Auburn YMCA website, which is?
Paul Szmal: AuburnYMCA.org.
Laura Clary: Awesome. Thank you so much, Laura. Appreciate it.
Paul Szmal: Sure thing. Thank you. It is 825 on FLX Morning.
