The Bangor Region YMCA on Thursday gave a first look at what its new campus, which will provide expanded and improved programs and services, will look like.
Leaders and supporters of the Bangor YMCA gathered Thursday to show renderings of the new facility and announce the general public can now contribute to the organization’s $57.8 million fundraising goal.
A LOOK AT THE NEW YMCA
The organization needs to fundraise another $13.4 million before June 30, 2025.
As of Feb. 13, the organization had gathered $31.6 million from various Mainers, businesses and local government, according to Diane Dickerson, Bangor Region YMCA CEO. Most recently, Hollywood Casino gave the Bangor YMCA $100,000 on Tuesday, which was collected at the casino’s parking garage during the 2024 summer concert season.
“We have a long way to go, and this isn’t going to be easy,” Dickerson said. “We’re going to need the community’s support to make this happen.”
The renderings of the new facility, premiered on Thursday, showed a future YMCA with bright, clean walls, high ceilings and large windows that let in plenty of sunlight.
Bangor YMCA officials also unveiled the new facility’s name — the Cathy Gero Bangor Region YMCA — in honor of a longtime member and supporter of the Bangor Region Y who passed away in 2022 after a four-year battle with cancer.
Jim Gero, Cathy Gero’s husband of 54 years, said it will be “incredibly emotional” to see his wife’s name on the new building, but appropriate because of her love of the organization, especially in the last years of her life.
“This was a place she went almost daily because she loved the people there and loved what it did for the community,” Gero said. “The pool was her favorite — she swam almost every day.”
The Gero family donated $5 million to the new facility before Cathy Gero died on Jan. 1, 2022.
The organization plans to break ground on the new site in September 2025, and the grand opening is slated for May 2027, Dickerson said.
While the new Bangor YMCA and what it will hold has been discussed for years, this is the community’s first glimpse at what the new building will look like. Further details on the campus’ offerings also show how the variety of programs aim to support the region’s physical, social and mental well-being.
“We’re going to bring generations together because this will be a social place,” Dickerson said. “It’s not just a place to come work out or drop off their children.”
The plans for the new facility are based on more than seven years of research and gathering public opinion on what the YMCA needs to offer the community, Dickerson said.
The new facility will sit on a 7-acre site on Main Street in Bangor between Dunkin’ and Bangor Fire Department, near Davis Court and Talbot Park. The three-story building will be 82,000 square feet, nearly twice the size of the 45,000-square-foot facility on Second Street.
“It’s going to be life-changing for this region,” Dickerson said. “We deserve this new Y.”
The additional space will allow the organization to double the size of its early childhood education and before and after school programs. The Bangor YMCA will also expand its child care program to start accepting infants as young as 6 weeks old rather than 1 year, allowing parents to re-enter the workforce sooner.
The new building will have space for a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) Maker Space and a Kids Adventure Zone for children in afterschool programs.
The new campus also plans to offer an outdoor playground and sports fields, which have been requested for years but that the current facility doesn’t have the space for.
The new Bangor YMCA will offer a teen center for middle and high school students.
In addition to two new pools, a full-court gymnasium and indoor track, the building will have improved gym facilities as well as studios for yoga, cycling and fitness classes.
The new campus will have a cafe, a community kitchen and food pantry. It will also offer a Community Health Center with on-site support from mental health specialists, a primary care provider and physical therapy, among other offerings.
Janine Tremble, president of the Bangor YMCA board of directors, said she believes membership will grow immediately once the new building opens because it’ll be more visible and offer new services and resources to the community.
“I think people are going to be dying to join,” Tremble said.