Paul Szmal: Here for our regular conversation, Scott Sensorboe from the Auburn YMCA. Good morning, Scott. How are you this morning?
Guest: Good morning, Paul. How are you today?
Paul Szmal: Doing great, doing great. One of the big news stories that popped up in the past week, and if memory serves me correctly, Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason brought this up from the City Council meeting last week, was that the Auburn YMCA was going to, in lack of better terms, I guess, partner up with the City of Auburn to help open the Cayce Park Pool this year.
Guest: Yeah, that's true. The City had previously decided to not open the pool at Cayce Park. The YMCA has a contract with the City. We provide lifeguards and management of the Cayce Park Pool for years now, but this year, you know, whether it's budget issues or the concrete on the pool deck, the City made a decision not to open the pool. I've been pretty vocal at City Council meetings about the importance of the Cayce Park Pool to provide a place for kids and families in the city to go on hot summer days. When I was a kid, it was a place that I went to, super important, and so really started looking for creative ways to figure out how to make sure that we we got the pool open. Finally, I decided early last week that the YMCA was going to donate to the City the lifeguards to operate the pool. It's about a $16,000 donation to the City, and at the same time Wegmans called me. Their Community Relations Department called and asked what they could do to help, and so I spoke to City Manager Jenny Haynes, and we agreed that the YMCA would write a grant to Wegmans on behalf of the City to ask for the cost of the chlorine for the pool to be paid for by Wegmans, and Wegmans is fantastic and agreed to it, and so the total is around $31,000 of financial support to ensure that the City opens up the Cayce Park Pool this summer for kids, so we're happy to do it. It's unusual that a nonprofit donates back to a municipality, but we felt strongly that not having that as a place for kids and families this summer was just something that we couldn't live with and wanted to make sure we cleared a path for the City to change their decision.
Paul Szmal: And I think this is a good illustration, too, of the level of expense that it takes to do something like this. You know, it's not just, okay, open up the gates and let everybody in. There are those additional costs, and sometimes those costs can be prohibitive.
Guest: It is. You know, everyone is feeling it in their pocketbook related to the cost of electricity. You know, the pool pumps run from the time that the pool is open until the last day that the pool closes, and certainly that's a cost on the City. Chlorine is needed in a pool, whether people are in the pool or not. Obviously, the one variable expense is the cost of personnel, the lifeguards. However, you know, running a pool that big, that's a 25-yard by 50-yard swimming pool, and so at any time we have seven lifeguards on that pool deck to ensure safety. So it is a costly endeavor, but, you know, we're trying to find a creative way to get to open the pool. It may be open for less weeks than it was open last year. Last year was open seven weeks. But the more important part of this is you know, in the heat of the summer, having a place where people can go and cool off and but yeah, so it's in the City's hands now. It's, you know, definitely not a YMCA decision. We basically follow what the City decides, but you know, we believe that we've done our part, you know, to cover a good portion of the cost of operations for the pool season.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we can follow up on that with Auburn City Clerk Chuck Mason when he's on tomorrow morning to recap tonight's City Council meeting. Speaking of Wegmans, not only have they provided some support through their Community Outreach Program for the Casey Park Pool Project, but they also made a pretty generous donation for the renovations at Camp Wyawosko.
Guest: Yeah, I just I can't say enough good things about Wegmans and what they do for our community. We are undergoing a pretty extensive transformation capital campaign for Camp Wyawosko, looking to raise around $400,000 to make critical renovations. We've raised about $110,000 so far and Wegmans Wegmans last week approved a grant for $5,000 to help us bring back one of the one of the truly, you know, magical places about Camp Wyawosko, which is our camp store. Kids love it. Parents love it. And so we are gonna reopen the camp store. It hasn't been open in several years and and with the help and support of Wegmans, so it'll be the trading post at Camp Wyawosko provided by Wegmans. So we're really excited about that. I also want to shout out one of our partners in business, BJ Reister and Reister's Appliance Services, because they made a contribution too.
Paul Szmal: They really did. And again, one of the beautiful things about this community is the generosity of some of the businesses in the community.
Guest: We got a I got a call from Reister's. Jackie from Reister's called me probably three weeks ago and said, hey, you know, BJ heard about the campaign for Camp Wyawosko. He wants to know what he can do. At that point we were under renovations with our camp kitchen. We got a big donation that I can speak about in a second. For the camp kitchen, but BJ was was adamant that he wanted to do something and it just so happens that our washer and dryer at Camp Wyawosko needed to be replaced and so Reister's agreed to donate a brand new washer and dryer for camp. In fact, it gets delivered next week and we we just can't thank him and everybody at Reister's enough for that that generosity. Before that, one of our two of our member families, the Wayne family who were the original founders of D&W Diesel, donated $50,000 to the YMCA for Camp Wyawosko and that's enabling us to renovate the camp kitchen and the dining area in the in the lodge at camp. So it's been really fantastic to see members of the community and businesses come out and support what is truly a gem in our community, you know, Camp Wyawosko is 2,800 feet of lake frontage on Wyawosko Lake and we serve a lot of kids over the summer, you know, last year 768 kids came through camp and we served over 3,600 meals in our from our camp kitchen and but we knew we needed to renovate it. It hadn't been touched in probably 30 years and it sorely needed it. And so with the support of the Wayne family, David and Doug Wayne, as well as people like BJ Reister and Wegmans, as well as incredibly generous donations from our members, we're able to kind of get this this moving.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Scott Sensorboe from the Auburn YMCA here on FLX Morning. Yeah, this is a great success story, I think, that has transpired here. Not only with the the donations to the Y itself and the improvements there, but the ability to be able to renovate and continue the operation of Camp Wyawosko. It really shows what a tight-knit community there is in the, you know, Auburn metropolitan surrounding areas.
Guest: It really is. And, you know, I think, you know, I'm back in this community after 40 years away. And, you know, my family and I have lived across the country for various roles that I've had in business. This community, Auburn, Cuyahoga County, is an absolute gem. And I think the the beauty that that you see, and what what I remember as a kid, you know, leaving here 40 years ago, was the sense of community and the sense of local business and how the community rallies to support one another. And, you know, we have beautiful lakes in this community. We have incredible green spaces. And it's, you know, living in various places across the country makes you realize and appreciate what what we have here in Auburn and Cuyahoga County.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and I would add Casey Park into that as well. It's not very many communities that have a minor league ballpark, a hockey arena, and a pool at the same location.
Guest: Exactly. And don't forget the, you know, a couple of years ago, the city put in the skate park and, you know, the Parks and Rec, you know, has a program at Casey Park. And, you know, there's just, you know, between Alaska Lake and Casey Park and, you know, the city's done a really nice job improving public playgrounds. You know, if you ride around the community, you can clearly see that. So, there's a lot to do. And we consider 27 Williams Street, the Auburn YMCA facility, one of those gems in our community that we hope more people will come and see and see what we've done in the last year with our facility here. It's a much different place than it was a year ago. And I think that shows in the uptake in membership.
Paul Szmal: Is that trend continuing?
Guest: It really is. It's been incredible. So, we're up about 18% in membership this year. We've got some incredible membership programs. You know, we have an insurance program with Silver and Fit and Silver Sneakers and Active Fit, where our senior community can get YMCA memberships through their insurance. We have a program with Keugan and Agabusis and the Auburn School District and the Jordan Elbridge School District and the Port Byron School District, where kids in those districts have access to the YMCA on special memberships, which is just incredible. But the word is getting out that the Y is changing. It's a vibrant facility. We've invested in our fitness equipment. We have the most technologically advanced fitness system called eGym, which we've talked about before on your show. And there's just a lot of good things happening, and we continue to invite the community in to see what we've done here. Certainly, Camp Ayahuasca was another critical place for us to invest, and we've switched gears and moved over to camp. And we'll be there, you know, making upgrades until probably September, and then we have more projects to do here in our building on William Street.
Paul Szmal: If people want to find out more about the Auburn YMCA and maybe obtaining one of those memberships, how do they do that, Scott?
Guest: A couple different ways. Stop in to the YMCA. The registration desk staff is there to help and show members, potential members, around and give a tour of the building. Or they can visit AuburnYMCA.org to learn more about membership. And we're excited to see membership continue to grow, and hopefully more people will come and have a look.
Paul Szmal: All right. I appreciate it. And it's only Scott. Thank you, sir.
Guest: Thank you. Have a great day.
