If you see a giant slide on Second Avenue North this weekend, it’s supposed to be there.
Same goes for the nine-hole mini-golf course and the 70-foot obstacle challenge.
The Frank P. Phillips Memorial YMCA will celebrate its centennial with a block party and open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
“The best way to describe it would be a carnival-type atmosphere,” Executive Director Jimmy Woodruff said. “Everybody’s invited. You don’t have to be a member.”
The block party, which will span Second Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets, also will include games where players can win prizes, face painting, along with free popcorn, candy and snow cones, Woodruff said. Food trucks will be on hand to sell food, and the YMCA will sell centennial merchandise and memberships to those interested.
Demonstrations for Zumba, Silver Sneakers and other YMCA fitness classes are slated, including water aerobics in the pool.
Inside, a 16-player pickleball tournament will begin in the gymnasium at 8:30 a.m.
“It’s going to give anybody who wants to come in an opportunity to see pickleball in action,” Woodruff said. “A lot of people have heard of the sport. They are hearing the name more than ever. But they don’t really understand it.”
Program Director Jeremy Brock said pickleball has “really taken off” at the Columbus and Caledonia YMCAs, and Saturday’s tournament should be a big draw.
“We’ll have an 81-year-old and a 17-year-old playing against a 62-year-old and a 20-year-old, and it’s competitive,” he said.
That afternoon, anyone can sign up to test their basketball skills in three-point and free-throw contests.
Meanwhile, on the third floor, the public can peruse a memorabilia room with artifacts and photos from the local Y’s first 100 years, as well as an authentically appointing one of the dorm rooms the Y once offered for rent.
“We’ve got some longtime members … who will be here Saturday, and they have agreed to work shifts (in the memorabilia room) to narrate what’s in there, tell stories and answer questions,” Woodruff said.
History and legacy
While the broader YMCA organization was founded in London, England, in 1844, The Columbus Young Men’s Christian Association was organized April 22, 1924, during a dinner at First Methodist Church. A year later, the organization’s first board president and eventual namesake offered an endowment of $100,000 for the project. Phillips left another $100,000 to the Y upon his death in 1942.
In 1926, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pratt deeded the organization property in south Lowndes County that became Camp Pratt, where the Y held youth camps for decades, and the downtown Y formally opened April 24, 1931.
The downtown building has undergone renovations and expansions through the years, even surviving a fire in 1998.
A segregated Sim Scott YMCA built for African Americans in 1964 remained open until 1985. A New Hope branch built in 2001 closed in 2020, three years after The YMCA sold Camp Pratt. The Caledonia branch was built in 2003.
Though Brock has only worked at the Y for two years, he said it’s been a big part of his family since he and his wife Essie — now the Y’s marketing and membership assistant — joined 17 years ago.
Their twin daughters, now 15, as well as their 10-year-old son, all learned to swim there. They have all participated in various programs there over the years, Jeremy said.
“It’s definitely had an impact on our lives,” he said.
The physical, mental and spiritual impact on its members is what makes the YMCA “a community within itself.”
“To sit here and say we’ve done that for 100 years in Columbus is amazing,” Woodruff said. “I have talked to so many people since I’ve taken this role and heard so many stories about what this place has meant to them. … You can’t even fathom how many people learned how to swim in this pool. … So many lifelong friendships that have been fostered here.
“More than anything, we’re a Christ-driven organization,” he added. “… We do things based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and we never want to forget that.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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