Paul Szmal: And FLX Morning continues at 8.15 under sunny skies at 64. And I'd like to welcome in the CEO of the Auburn YMCA, Scott Sensorbeau, joining us this morning. Scott, good morning. How are you, sir?
Scott Sincerbeaux: Good morning, Paul. Thank you very much for having me.
Paul Szmal: So you've had another month or so to settle into the job. How are things going?
Scott Sincerbeaux: Yeah, just finishing up month number four. It's going really terrific. We've had a lot of interaction with members and the community, our foundation partners, really getting a lay of the land of what we need to do in the long term with our YMCA and Camp Ayahuasca, and making some upgrades in the facility for the short term, which we hope that our parents who bring their kids to our early learning center, as well as our members will notice and see that we're moving the needle at the YMCA.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you know, it's a process that you're going through here, as you mentioned, because you're doing things in the short term, but you're also kind of trying to plot out a long term strategy at the same time. That's not an easy thing to do.
Scott Sincerbeaux: No, it's not. But, you know, with the support of our leadership team here at the YMCA and our board of directors, it's been a really smooth journey to align on the things that we needed to do in the short term to make the noticeable impact for our members, as well as consider what we want to do with this building and Camp Ayahuasca in the longer term from an investment standpoint. So it's certainly been a journey, but we're making a noticeable impact. And I think people who come to the Y on a regular basis have started to notice some of the changes. And this morning, we welcome our kids back to our early learning center, and we hope that the parents will notice the incredible new lobby that we renovated for the early learning center.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I remember we talked about that the last time we discussed. So that project has been completed fully?
Scott Sincerbeaux: Yeah, the project finished yesterday. We're waiting on one piece that was donated to us from HABA. It's a sensory toy installation that will be installed in the lobby. But other than that, that project is complete. And we're under construction right now on repairs to the William Street entrance, as well as our first ever toddler playground, which we're really excited about, which should be done in about two weeks.
Paul Szmal: Toddler playground, what's involved with that?
Scott Sincerbeaux: So I think our early learning center has 199 kids, starting from 18 months all the way up to our pre-kindergarten program through the Auburn School District. We utilize the playground at the Presbyterian Church, which is right next to the YMCA, for our pre-K kids to experience playground time and get outside. But those playground toys are too big for toddlers, and we wanted to give the toddlers their own space with age-appropriate playground toys, which is also very easy and convenient for our teachers to bring the kiddos to the playground. So it literally is out the front door of our William Street entrance, which is our new early learning center entrance, and the toddler playground will be right there. So it's really exciting. Everything is ready. It's just a little delayed with some concrete issues, but we're really excited about what that's going to bring to our kids.
Paul Szmal: And you mentioned some repairs to the William Street entrance as well?
Scott Sincerbeaux: Yeah, so part of that area, there were flagstones, if you will, at the entrance that were, over time became trip hazards, for lack of better words. So we've taken them up and we're putting in a brand new walkway as you come up the stairs on William Street to get into the William Street entrance, which is adjacent to the toddler playground. So we just want to make our building and our facility as safe and convenient as possible, and we want to give our kids an amazing time to have fun and learn in a safe environment in our early learning center.
Paul Szmal: So once those repairs are complete and the toddler playground is done, which it sounds like it's well on its way, is there a next construction phase that's already being planned?
Scott Sincerbeaux: Yeah, yes, actually. In fact, well, we're multitasking. So we're about finished with the installation of a dedicated TRX exercise room on the second floor. The equipment will be delivered in the next couple of weeks. So we're really excited. Laura Clary, who is our director of health and wellness, has done an amazing job in thinking through what we need for our members, and a dedicated space for TRX is one of the areas that we felt like it was an appropriate investment. In addition to that, we will be announcing shortly an incredible state-of-the-art fitness equipment program that's completely intuitive, that there is nothing like this in Cayuga County. You would have to go to the YMCA's in Rochester or Syracuse to experience this new equipment and the technology associated with it. So it's about a $200,000 investment for the YMCA between the TRX room that we're building as well as the investment in this new equipment. So again, our aim in the short term is to be able to impact areas across the YMCA, including the Early Learning Center and our health and wellness program, as well as improvements that we've made in our swimming pool facility.
Paul Szmal: I don't think we've discussed the swimming pool improvements yet.
Scott Sincerbeaux: No. So before I joined the Y, there was a water pipe that burst on the observation deck for swim meets, which essentially destroyed the walls and ceiling in our swim meet control room, which is up on the second level, as well as the pool observation deck. And just our largest pool, the Allen pool, needed a thorough deep cleaning. We needed to invest in some new mechanical equipment to optimize pool temperature and just things that needed to be done over time. And so those improvements have been made. And in fact, the Allen pool is reopening this morning from going through those phases of update and so we're excited about that as well. So it's really not an area of this building, including Camp Hiawasco, that we haven't made improvements in over the last four months. And we're just really fortunate that our board of directors are so supportive of what we're trying to do to make improvements. And the team here, my leadership team, receives all the credit. They are the ones that are really putting their thinking caps on and listening to members and making recommendations about where the critical investments are needed in the short term while we also develop what the YMCA will look like and Camp Hiawasco will look like in the future.
Paul Szmal: Now, I know some of this money, I believe, comes from from grant structures and grant programs to help pay for these, but not all of that money covers all of these projects. So we wanted to mention that there were a couple of YMCA members that have pledged to match every dollar donated between now and October 31st up to an amount of $20,000.
Scott Sincerbeaux: Correct. Again, one of the great blessings about this YMCA is some of our dedicated members and two of our members came to me and said they really wanted to get behind the things that we're doing to improve the facility in the short term and offered to match up to $20,000 of other membership contributions that we received between now and the end of October. And those dollars are going directly to pay for these improvements that we're making in the facility. As you mentioned, we also have grants that we apply for on a regular basis. Most recently, we applied for a BRICS grant through the City of Auburn. We've been very fortunate to be great partners with the City of Auburn, who allowed us to apply for the BRICS grant to make repairs to our building, and hopefully we'll hear results of that shortly. But also, we have great support from our foundation partners as well between the Allen Foundation and the French Medcalf Foundation and the Emerson Foundation. We couldn't make the updates and some of the critical expense-driven improvements without their support as well. It takes a lot, and it takes monies coming in from various sources to be able to make these improvements. Our aim is to provide an amazing place for not only our members, but the community, and listen to the community, and make sure that the YMCA becomes a community partner that helps solve problems in our community. And by the way, if you wanted to make a donation, you can mail that donation to the Auburn YMCA. Please indicate Facility Improvement Campaign in your memo line. It's 27 William Street, Auburn, 13021 is the zip code. It's 27 William Street, Auburn, 13021. And again, Facility Improvement Campaign should be on the memo line, as again, the donations are being matched between now and October 31st up to $20,000 for that campaign.
Paul Szmal: Scott, thank you so much for joining us and giving us an update this morning, and we'll check back in on the progress with you next month.
Scott Sincerbeaux: Thanks a lot, Paul. Really appreciate it.
