Off to a Smart Start
Bonita Springs’ YMCA focuses on the youngest of learners
The Bonita Springs YMCA is accustomed to thinking big—often against tall odds—to bond with the community. When it was closed in 2010 amid the recession, it reopened a year later as part of the regional SKY Family YMCA—with donations from some of the same citizens who built it in 2005. The Venice-based SKY Family YMCA operates facilities in an area stretching from southern Sarasota County to southern Lee County. SKY stands for “strength and knowledge at the YMCA.”
When searching for fresh attractions for today’s residents, many of whom live in gated communities with their own pools and gyms, the Y, with help from the city of Bonita Springs, dared to try pickleball. The eight courts were an instant hit, making the Y a major hub for daily play, as well as national amateur and pro tournaments.
Now the Y looks to connect with the community in a bolder way—adding a whole new day care/early childhood/voluntary pre-kindergarten (VPK) education center to its 20-acre campus on Kent Street. At 10,000 square feet, it will be one of the biggest in Lee County with space for 165 students at a cost of $2.4 million. Fundraising was jumpstarted with $750,000 from the Richard M. Schulze Foundation, and by February, as construction reached skyward, there was $600,000 more to raise. Y chairman Mark Suwyn, himself a donor of an undisclosed amount, was confident of full funding when the center debuts in August.
The project has more going for it than a can-do attitude and a powerful sense of stewardship, in keeping with the Y’s “Building Strong and Bright Futures” motto. The SKY family brings know-how from running three such education programs for infants through pre-kindergarten at other member YMCAs in Venice (two) and Charlotte Harbor. Officials have core curriculum, staffing and even menu skills in place.
“This is going to be a first-class operation, not a Quonset hut to warehouse kids,” says Suwyn. “You keep reading articles about the importance of these early years,” he adds, “but too many kids are still sitting around doing nothing.”
Surely not at the Y, uniquely equipped with two swimming pools, a gym and outdoor hike-bike path and workout stations—and those eight pickleball courts—for a vibrant physical education component when most adult members are not around.
The Y hopes students’ enthusiasm brings their parents back with them on weekends.
Jeanne LaFountain, the early childhood education director for Lee County Public Schools, confirms the community needs what the Y aims to provide. “Research nationally shows children not kindergarten-ready are half as likely to read well by third grade,” she reports. “Children not reading proficiently by third grade are four times more likely to drop out.”
She also shares data from Kansas showing children who miss a quality early education experience are 40 percent more likely to become teen parents and 70 percent more likely to commit a violent crime.
Susan Block, CEO of the regional Early Learning Coalition, including Lee County, concurs that early learning (EL) program grads are far better prepared for VPK, which is funded by the state for six months per student. She adds that EL programs are especially valuable for students from poor households that lag
in encouragement and stimulation, such as reading aloud. She goes on to add a dose of reality by saying some schools that serve the poor are hard-pressed to pay good teachers.
The SKY organization says its experience with other schools, plus a health insurance package, offers an edge on recruiting and retaining quality staff, whose size had not been pinned down by early spring. Internships with Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida SouthWestern State College were in the works.
What was firm, according to officials, is the process for admissions. With classroom sizes capped, Suwyn and SKY regional director Joey Balenger say the public will be formally notified and invited to apply. The expected high demand will lead to a lottery, followed by the Y working with needy winners for scholarship assistance from organizations such as the United Way and Early Learning Coalition, which connects day cares and schools with state and federal funding. Regionally, the Y itself puts up $400,000 a year for student aid.
Brian Nason, the SKY youth development director, bundles up the bottom line: “It is proven from research that children learn best through play. Children at this age learn through all their senses. Playing with blocks is teaching physics, problem-solving, counting and other endless possibilities.
“Our teachers at the Y facilitate learning through active observations of children’s explorations and activities. They offer activities and materials that provide appropriate challenges to help children question their own assumptions and encourage them to think.”
Jeff Lytle is the retired editorial page editor and TV host from the Naples Daily News. He now lives in Bonita Springs.