Featured in the Farmington Press
By Sherri Kolade skolade@candgnews.com
FARMINGTON HILLS — It all started a little over half a century ago, when the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit decided to form a branch in Farmington Hills in 1965.
Since then, thousands of families and youth have called the Farmington Family YMCA home, including longtime member Grant Anderson.
The 28-year-old Bingham Farms resident, who has been a member for over a decade, said while eating lunch April 9 at the Y that having a closed-head injury in 2007 never stopped his love of attending his YMCA.
“(The YMCA) has created a loving atmosphere,” Anderson said. “It makes you feel like you’re a part of a bigger family, because I’m a people-person.”
Anderson, like many others before and after him, attended the YMCA for recreation.
“When I first started coming, I would lift weights, run on the treadmill, play basketball,” he said. “Now, with the injury, I can’t walk or run, so I swim. That is my new sport. I love the staff; I love all the members who come out here. Fifty years is a big deal because it shows that good things can last.”
According to Gary Unruh, former executive director of the Farmington branch, the Farmington YMCA has lasted because of founding members and public support.
Unruh, who was in charge of raising money to build the YMCA’s current location in the 1980s, said he came on board in the mid-1970s. He was the vice president of operations at the Detroit YMCA for about a decade in the 1980s.
He said that prior to his arrival, the Detroit YMCA started the Farmington extension to see how popular it would be before turning it into a branch 50 years ago.
Volunteers and others interested in the Farmington YMCA held a meeting to explore the concept of a YMCA in Farmington Hills, Unruh said.
“That would have been 51 years ago that meeting took place,” he said.
In the local YMCA’S early stages, before there was an official building, various programs were conducted at schools, homes and churches.
“A lot of things have happened within the 50-year framework,” Unruh said.
Laura Perlowski, Farmington Family YMCA district vice president and executive director, said the YMCA continually adapts in every community it serves, but the guiding principles are the same.
“We are looking for new and different, creative programming,” she said.
Perlowski said that 50 years ago, there wasn’t a need for child care, but now the YMCA runs a pre-K child care service, and serves 10 Detroit schools and 800 students.
“Child care is a huge need in the Farmington community that the YMCA serves,” she said.
She added that most recently, the Farmington YMCA has incorporated a robotics program, which coincides with grants that the organization has received.
“We’re working on doing that sort of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, which takes a lot of technology, bringing to our afterschool program,” Perlowski said.
The Farmington YMCA serves about 12,000 people annually.
“We have grown,” she said. “I think the Y hasn’t changed as much as people think. It has way back then served teens, family programs. … We are still doing that now, doing it differently, but really the Y is still about helping kids and families — impacting lives.”
Perlowski said her decision to work for the YMCA came when she was in her late teens and her YMCA aquatics director asked her what she wanted to do with her life.
“The Y changed my family’s life,” she said. “I was a kid who grew up in the Y, and I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. I know that we are making a difference. I know we raised over $200,000 every year so we can put kids in our camps and child care for parents who can’t pay the whole fee.That is important.”
An open house will be held from 3-7 p.m. April 16 at the Farmington YMCA, 28100 Farmington Road. The event will feature light refreshments, tours, and the opportunity to videotape a memory of residents’ experiences at the Farmington YMCA.
On May 12, a small group of Farmington YMCA founders, organizers, employees and others will attend a luncheon at Botsford Hospital.
“It is a unique opportunity for us to step back and say ‘thank you’ to those who founded the Y,” Unruh said.
For more information, go to ymcadetroit.org/farmington.