Business owner donates $500K to West End Y

The president of a Lake County business will be giving half a million dollars in donations to the new West End YMCA facility being built in Willoughby.

Terri Cain, president of Lake Business Products in Eastlake, has lived and/or been involved in the Lake County community her whole life. Her father started Lake Business Products in 1960.

Cain, who now lives in Chardon, is giving $500,000 to further the new YMCA development, which is also a community collaborative effort with Willoughby South High School and a future city-owned senior center.

“Whether business or living,

this is my home,” Cain said about Lake County. She added that she was previously a member of the Lake Erie College Board and she has joined the board of directors for the Lake County YMCA.

Concerning her company, Cain mentioned that her father had worked in the copier business before and disagreed with the way his boss was running the business,

so he went his own way.

“My dad took the lead and my uncle came on board after it got established,” Cain said.

In mid-February, Cain visited the new West End YMCA construction site, touring the future facilities and the main entrance area, which she will eventually dedicate and name.

The main entrance to the new YMCA will feature a front desk, a staircase leading to exercise rooms and large windows that overlook the pools. The

entrance currently faces south, toward Route 84.

Cain said that she has a “pretty good idea” what she wants to name the YMCA entrance area, but has not decided yet and needs to run the idea by her sister, who she said was also a significant part of Lake Business Products.

Kelly Penzenik, director of marketing and communications for the Lake County YMCA, and Sarah Baggott, director of development, highlighted that the community is crucial to completing the YMCA’s

project.

“One of the things that the business prides themselves on is community support,” said Kelly Penzenik, director of marketing and communications for the Lake County YMCA. “And, because of Terri’s rich faith as well as the idea of giving back to the community and from our conversations yesterday, it felt as if the Y was just one of those things that fit right in to the way she lives her life and what the Y does for the community.”

To that end, Cain added

that she was recently the career day keynote speaker at her children’s alma mater, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin.

“That was a big part of my (speech) — about my faith and who I depend on every day. That was my heart,” she said.

Cain’s donation is the largest donation to the YMCA’s capital campaign.

Union Village, which contains the new West End YMCA, is expected to open this fall, officials said in a previous News-Herald article.