From specific interest in a few recreational programs blossomed the efforts toward creating an entire facility: the Southern Boone YMCA.
Directing a grassroots project that is two years in the making, Lorna Trammell, president of the Southern Boone YMCA Advisory Board, said she hopes for an April 1 opening date for the 6,800-square-foot facility in Ashland.
The YMCA will begin to sell memberships in mid-January.
As the president of the 15-member advisory board, Trammell and a few others at first desired gym space for youth recreational programs and noticed the local success of YMCA programs such as Silver Sneakers and a summer camp.
After "one thing led to another," Trammell began discussions with Jefferson City Area YMCA CEO Craig Lammers about building a recreational facility to serve the southern Boone County area, she said.
The conversations eventually resulted in the repurposing of the former Home Movie Depot in Ashland for the creation of a branch of the Jefferson City Area YMCA because the national YMCA does not grant charters to cities with populations of less than 30,000.
The location in the former Home Movie Depot will serve as a temporary facility until a financial goal is met to construct a new facility with additional services such as a swimming pool and more gymnasium space.
The Southern Boone YMCA will purportedly serve the 12,000 residents within its 7-mile radius, according to Dave Westoff, advisory board member.
With donations totaling more than $578,000, the YMCA exceeded its Founder's Campaign goal of $500,000 and will begin its next initiative of moving into the facility and setting up exercise space and rooms for group exercise and classes.
Trammell and other members of the advisory board hope to sell 500 memberships in the first year and will establish a capital campaign for eventual construction of a new facility.
The Southern Boone YMCA is also partnering with University of Missouri Health Care in order to provide services through MU Physical Therapy.
The therapists will utilize the YMCA equipment for patient care. This partnership stemmed from the university's desire to establish a location in Ashland, Trammell said.
Trammell characterized the construction of the YMCA as a "win-win" for the community as it "provides youth with a place to go and enables families to be together."
Kim Ponder, president of the Southern Boone Economic Council, cited a number of benefits from creating a YMCA in Ashland.
In her role on the council, Ponder searches for ways to support existing businesses and attract new businesses to the area. This project provides a "mix of traffic, services and jobs," all of which will economically benefit the community, she said.
"This is one of the most perfect examples of what economic development can do for the community," Ponder said, citing this project as one of the largest the community has seen in some time.
"There's so much potential with what it will do for our community," she said.
With a growing youth population and the Optimist Club that serves many, though not all, of the recreational needs of the youth, the new YMCA will "fill the gaps" in organized athletics for youth.
The local YMCA will locate and understand the needs of the community, then develop programs based on those needs.
"It's an incredible feeling of having a vision ... and to know hard work will result in something greater is a blessing for us. We know it's going to be good and will change everything for the better," she said.