Over 300 people attended the ribbon cutting for the opening of the Winston Lake YMCA REACH Center.
kdehart
The Winston Lake YMCA held a ribbon cutting ahead of its soft opening later this month. The facility has been closed for nearly 10 months for renovations and an expansion to include community health and economic development partners.
The YMCA REACH -- which stands for resources for economic development, academics and community health -- Center at Winston Lake will open its gym on May 27 and will begin regular classes and services on June 2.
The YMCA partnered with Novant Health to provide an onsite primary care clinic, as well as x-rays and preventative care. The clinic will accept patients using Medicaid.
Another community partner at the Center, Goodwill of Northwest North Carolina, will provide professional development courses and training in the YMCA, but will not be open in May.
Apart from the new community resources, the YMCA will also have the usual features, including a gym, pool, locker rooms, group fitness classes and afterschool care.
Over 300 people ranging from community members, YMCA partners and elected officials attended the ribbon cutting on Wednesday morning. Following the ribbon cutting, the YMCA held tours for people to walk through the new facility.
Executive Director of the Winston Lake YMCA Kenneth Pettigrew said the REACH Center is the result of listening to community needs.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts
"It is a long confluence of conversations with the community, looking at community needs and responding to the fact that there's a shortage of healthcare services in this community. There's a shortage of food access in community," Pettigrew said. "How can we, as an organization that already has programs of our own, also partner with other organizations to bring these services to the community, to create a really sustainable and fully like whole life place for folks to come and do things?"
Marcellette Orange, the executive director of the Winston Salem YMCA from 1992 to 1997, said the Winston Lake YMCA is a special place to the community, one she sees as a family.
When she left the Winston Lake YMCA for a job in Cincinnati, Orange said she was sad to go and the only reason she left was for upward mobility.
Now, Orange said it was heartwarming to be back and see all the progress the YMCA has made and the impact the REACH Center will have on the community.
"It's not just a job," Orange said. "It's a family to be here."
As for the new primary care clinic, Community Engagement Partner at Novant Health Monica Vereen said creating access to healthcare is an important way to serve and engage a community.
There's another Novant clinic at the YMCA on Robinhood Road, something Vereen said has been successful.
Vereen said Novant Health is committed to giving back to the community.
"Having access to healthcare is a social determinant of health, it affects everything," Vereen said. "It affects your ability to work. It affects your ability to hang out with your family and life and longevity. Obviously, we want to improve that access to care so that we're improving the quality of life for everybody."
kdehart@wsjournal.com
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.
Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. kdehart Author email Follow kdehart Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today