'It's a new beginning.' Wilton YMCA pool reopens, marking phase 1 of 4 completed
The reopening comes after flooding from Aug. 19 left majority of the property wrecked, including the 50-meter pool.
The pool at the Wilton Family YMCA is back in business after four months of rebuilding it from scratch.
The reopening comes after flooding from Aug. 19 left majority of the property wrecked, including the 50-meter pool.
"It shut down basically half of our Y until today," said COO Samantha Lusher.
Getting the pool up and running became their top priority. They launched a flood relief campaign to help cover the costs.
"We've seen more unique donors during this situation than we've ever had," Lusher said.
It's thanks to those unique donors, which Luther said is about 400 of them, that the pool was able to get back up and running as fast as it has.
"That's huge because this impacted a lot of people, for one small thing, and you think it's just a couple gallons of water, but really it was so impactful that people came out for us," Lusher said.
The completion of the 50-meter pool is only the first of four phases and First Vice Chair Greg Pinchbeck said they still have ways to go.
"The next phase of the project will cover the exterior and surrounding grounds and lands, rebuilding the beach, rebuilding the pavilion and then basically reengineering and redesigning the property in a way that we can hopefully mitigate this type of event going forward and not have the same kind of disruptions that we've had over the last couple months," Pinchbeck explained.
The Y hopes to have what's left of the phases finished by Memorial Day but Lusher said they still are in need of more funding.
To donate or for more information about the flood relief efforts, click here.
