Calgary Journal Online

Members of South YMCA and those on swimming teams there may find themselves without a home in the fall

One of the two original YMCAs in Calgary will be closing its doors in September due to low membership rates and a lack of funding.

The south YMCA location on Haddon Road S.W., opened in 1963, and only has 1,500 members, which is a third of the 4,500 necessary to cover operating costs.

In the announcement made by the YMCA, the building would cost about $5 million to renovate and nearly $20 million to rebuild. The facility, which is currently operating at a deficit, has been subsidized by other locations to this point, but YMCA Calgary said that it is no longer in a position to do so.

YMCA officials have declined to speak with The Calgary Journal in regards to the closure.

Mary-Beth Flaherty, assistant coach for a south YMCA synchronized swim team, said it was “a sad day” when the closure was officially announced.

Mary-Beth Flaherty, assistant coach of a synchronized swim team at the South YMCA, agreed to practice at Mount Royal University forThe Calgary Journal as the YMCA would not allow cameras into their facility.

Photo: Aurora Graveland/ Calgary Journal

Flaherty, who has been coaching for two years, said her swimming team has had a difficult time trying to find a new place to hold its practices and is afraid that the team will have to disband as of the fall.

The team had tried to move practices to the Shawnessy YMCA, but that would have conflicted with Shawnessy’s free-swim times, which is a source of income for the YMCA.

“Trying to find another place has been so difficult,” Flaherty said.

Flaherty’s main concern with the situation is what will happen to the group of girls who swim on her synchronized swimming team.

“Getting them to leave the Y and leave the people that they know is going to be really hard,” Flaherty said. “They want to go together. Trying to find one big place where they can do that will be hard.”

While the hunt for a new pool to practice at continues, Flaherty is unsure as to the future of the team. If the team cannot relocate by September, she said she will try to find a new team to coach, or may look at becoming a swimming instructor.

“I’m just hoping it doesn’t come to that,” she said.

Chris Coulton-Varney, a regular user of the South YMCA for more than 10 years, said she feels that the decision to close the location was made without any consultation with the current members and it was “a done deal” long before the official decision was ever made.

“What concerns me about that is that the mission statement of the Y is such that it’s supposed to be a community-based facility,” Coulton-Varney said. “I’m really disappointed in the Y.”

Coulton-Varney said she hopes for a happy outcome for all the users of the facility, but acknowledges the amount of work that would be required to fix the building up would be fairly extensive.

“I just keep hoping that maybe a miracle will happen,” she said. “Maybe someone will take this Y over and it’ll stay open.”

Coulton-Varney said there is a “sense of community” in the facility and that is what makes the place truly special.

“The facility is not top notch, but that’s not why people come here,” Coulton-Varney said. “One lady, she’s not a religious person, but she said it’s like a church to her. There’s a lot more to this place than just the building.”