YMCA goes big in partnership with city

It’s a really, really big deal. YMCA Calgary is poised to open its Brookfield Residential YMCA in Seton mid-January, 2019.

And when it does, the centre will be the largest health and wellness focused YMCA facility in the world.

“This 330,000-square-foot facility in the city’s southeast will overtake the current largest centre in the world which, as it happens, is also located in Calgary and actually only opened this year,” says Nick Wiggins, a regional director for the YMCA Calgary.

So while the Brookfield Residential YMCA leisure centre is indeed a major milestone, the organization is no stranger to managing Calgary’s premier recreation facilities.

The opening earlier this year of the Shane Homes YMCA at Rocky Ridge was a big deal, too. The 284,000-square-foot facility in northwest Calgary marked a continuation of the organization’s long history of supporting Calgary communities.

“Calgary YMCA has an amazing partnership with the City of Calgary,” Wiggins says. “Basically, the city decided to build these amazing new facilities, and then it looked for a community partner to operate them on its behalf.”

Given that the YMCA’s history as a provider of community services in Calgary stretches back more than 80 years, it was a natural fit to manage the city’s three newest leisure centres — Seton, Rocky Ridge and the Remington YMCA at Quarry Park, which opened in 2016.

All facilities are state-ofthe-art as well as breathtakingly beautiful, Wiggins says.

But the next centre to open — Brookfield Residential YMCA — is particularly noteworthy. It’s not just the biggest, but it boasts some of the best recreational amenities in the city, including an Olympic-sized competition swimming pool and fourmetre dive tower. The centre also has a 300-seat theatre for performing arts, an art gallery space and two arts studios

“The fact that we will now be hosting aquatic competitions is quite exciting for us,” says Wiggins, adding that the YMCA now manages five key recreational facilities for the City of Calgary.

“And with the opening of the new Seton centre, that partnership is only going to get better.”

YMCA employees, from left, Nick Wiggins, Sam Trudel, Nick Mansfield, Jocelyn Santos and Jessica Pana at the new Olympic-sized swimming pool that is part of the Brookfield Residential YMCA in Seton.