Cor Van Raay has donated $100,000 to the YMCA of Lethbridge (Photo supplied by Ross Jacobs, YMCA of Lethbridge)

By Justin Goulet

Cor Van Raay donates $100,000 to YMCA of Lethbridge

Dec 4, 2019 | 10:29 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The YMCA of Lethbridge has received a major financial boost.

Cor Van Raay presented a gift of $100,000 earlier this week on Giving Tuesday. The Y’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Ross Jacobs, said the money will go towards the Strong Kids Fund.

The YMCA program helps subsidize local families who want to become members.

“At the old YMCA, we subsidized about 150 families and since moving to the new Y here on the west side at the Cor Van Raay YMCA, we’re helping over 950 families currently,” Jacobs told LNN.

“That’s at multiple different levels and depending on the individual families needs and their ability, we have subsidized programs, we have subsidized memberships and then we also have access to subsidized training and leadership.”

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He said that there’s a financial cost that comes with subsidizing programming and “at its core, the YMCA is a non-profit organization”.

“We really rely on our donors and the amazing donors like Cor Van Raay – in this case – to help us help others,” he added.

“Cor heard there was a need and he stepped up to the plate. It’s amazing to see this man continue to give and when I spoke to him about the donation, he said ‘Ross, I just want people to be able to live longer [and] happier lives’. I thought that was really profound – that he felt over his many years as a YMCA member that it’s helped him live longer and live healthier and through his donation, he’s going to help others achieve that same thing and that’s amazing. It’s good to see at this time of year.”

Jacobs thanked all of their donors and said they couldn’t provide the programming they do without donors’ support.

“Giving Tuesday was more about saying thank you to people and having the opportunity to be very involved in thanking our donors – whether that’s they donated money, or they donated time, it was really important that we said thank you. To get a donation like this from Cor on Tuesday was just icing on an already beautiful cake.”

FIRST YEAR ON THE WEST SIDE

The Cor Van Raay YMCA opened on the west side of Lethbridge earlier this year. Jacobs said so far, operations have been going extremely well.

“We’ve over-exceeded all of the estimates that we had put in place for ourselves. We’re achieving membership numbers that we were thinking we wouldn’t reach until the spring or summer of next year. It does mean that we have to constantly be evolving things like staff count and training and hiring – [but] those are all good problems to have,” he said.

“It’s really exciting to be in a growing, thriving YMCA in Southern Alberta. An opportunity to grow this institution and the programs that it delivers is exciting both for the leadership team and I think for the community to get a chance to be exposed to all the things that the YMCA can do.”

Families looking for support can visit the YMCA’s Membership Services Desk to learn about different options for them.