Vision of a gym has turned into a gem for Sikeston area

SIKESTON — What began as a search for a gym kids could use to practice basketball has turned into a gem for the City of Sikeston and the surrounding area.

Twenty-six years ago, the YMCA of Southeast Missouri opened its doors, a vision of Alan Keenan, Richard Montgomery, and Steve Sikes along with a community of dedicated people who had no idea how that vision would evolve.

As the YMCA celebrates its 25th anniversary (pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic), it now has a membership of around 4,000. A far cry from the humble beginnings in the early to mid-90s.

“My objective when I was thinking about this was I just wanted a gym for the kids to be able to go to and practice basketball,” said Montgomery, who added as a kid he would always have to break into gyms in the middle of the night to practice. “Other than certain churches, that were only open certain hours, there was nowhere for kids to play and I felt like that was important.”

Montgomery then visited a YMCA in Mexico, Missouri, a smaller community than Sikeston, and thought it was something that could be done here.

At around the same time Montgomery along with Sikes were inquiring about a YMCA in Sikeston, Keenan also got the idea and called the YMCA in St. Louis to ask.

“The fellow in St. Louis said he remembered talking to people from Sikeston,” Keenan said. “He looked at his notes and asked if I knew Steve Sikes and Richard Montgomery and said if I was interested in doing it I should talk to them.”

Keenan laughed that he hadn’t seen either of them in a week and then the three sat down and hatched a plan with the help of the national YMCA group in St. Louis.

“We had to come up with about a quarter-million dollars in pledges over three years, the Founders money,” Keenan said. “Richard and Steve had experience in fundraising with the hospital and other things and we put together a Founders campaign and raised $250,000.”

Besides raising money the group also formed a board which Sikes said was key to getting started.

“We had to have a lot of help from a lot of people,” Sikes said. “The vast majority of the town didn’t have any idea of what a YMCA was going to be.”

Sikes said he knew what the YMCA could be after visiting one in Jefferson City where his brother was a member.

“I was just awe-struck and it’s not near as nice as this one,” Sikes said.

Keenan said the YMCA group had a formula for them to follow and they accomplished one thing after another.

“It was a lot more detail-oriented than what I was used to,” Keenan said of the steps. “We got to a point where we got the money, did the checklist, which probably took close to a year, and then we hired Jeff (Partridge).”

Partridge, who still serves as the chief engagement officer at the YMCA, came from Iowa and rented a small office on South Main where he remained for two years.

All agreed hiring Partridge was a great move and set them on a path to be where they are today.

Once in Sikeston, Partridge went out and found space in churches or schools to hold programs like a day camp that was held in the summer at Rotary Park.

“We didn’t start with a lot because nobody knew about it, but word got out that this is fun for the kids,” Sikes said, adding that it also offered affordable child care to the parents.

Then the old middle school gym, located along Tanner Street, became available and it was rented for a couple years for the YMCA, after the leaky-roof was fixed.

The gym offered more than just space for basketball and activities as the building had an upstairs where computers and games were put for high school kids to play with. They then added a workout facility on the side with modern day bathrooms.

“We were trying desperately to get every age group in the community involved,” Sikes said, adding that nobody to this day is turned away for lack of funds.

Keenan said sometimes just seemed to fall into place. Once they acquired the gym which they could rent for a small fee, the whole city block became available.

“(The R-6 school district) used to have the old Bailey building over here but they didn’t want it anymore, it became a problem for them,” Montgomery said. “We had just bought here so they gave that north side to us. That was fortunate. Think how lucky we were to have this old gym and then get this property for future growth. We were lucky.”

Sikes said some people wanted to move the YMCA as generous land offer was made to put it in a different spot.

“We felt like that if this was to belong to the community than it needed to be in the center of town,” Sikes said. “This is about the most center of town as you can get.”

As public interest grew so did the ideas for building a better facility, including a new gym, weight room and indoor pool.

Because the renovation cost so much, fundraising was key. A fundraising consultant from the YMCA was hired and Partridge and other local community members attended a capital campaign planning seminar to help learn how to raise such an amount.

Once the groundwork was laid, the fundraising committee went to work.

“During the fundraising, I can remember, most people were very supportive of what we were intending to do,” Montgomery said. “I had one person say it was too much for Sikeston, and that Sikeston couldn’t support it. Quickly I found out Sikeston would support it. When we really got into our fundraising, we proved them wrong.”

Keenan said some people gave a little because that’s what they could and some people gave a lot, because they could. All for one common vision of the YMCA.

The planned renovation was costly and the project was divided into two phases depending on how much money was raised. Then a $2-million dollar pledge from June Barton helped make it where the entire project could be done.

“That was a lifesaver but we had generous gifts from all over the community,” Montgomery said. “(The Barton donation) was the thing to get us over the hump. But we had many people on the campaign that went out and asked people for money.”

The fundraising for what is now known as the David M. Barton Family Center was the biggest Sikeston had seen.

“Even without the Barton gift the amount of money we raised for this project would have been more than twice as much that had ever been raised in this town before,” Partridge said.

Now the YMCA has about 4,000 members and attracts members from Charleston, New Madrid and many other small towns around Sikeston.

“I think this is what we had in the back of our mind but we didn’t realize that this YMCA was going to become a picture of the community,” Sikes said.

One of the main reasons for the success of the YMCA is the work of the Board of Directors.

“We have had a board that is involved and passionate,” said Keenan, one of the original board members along with Montgomery and Sikes. “We were on the board but phased off after a few years and other people with a lot of energy and great vision took over after us. I think that’s the continuity of everything.”

Another key point to the success and future success of the YMCA is the endowment committee.

“The population in this area is not growing and this is a jewel of this town,” Sikes said. “Our hope of the endowment committee, is that over a period of time, we can raise enough money to keep this thing going, without having a big increase in our membership dues.”

“I think it has got to be one of the best selling features of this town to people coming in. I’m not diminishing the hospital or the school system, there are a lot of things we have we think are good, but this is the newest of the jewels.”

Montgomery said it wasn’t easy when they started asking for money to start the YMCA because people didn’t know what a YMCA could be. But now they do.

“We hadn’t had one here,” Montgomery said. “We were selling them on a vision. But now that we’ve touched so many people’s lives, we feel in the future it will be easier because it means a lot to a lot of people to be able to use the Y. When they get to be where they can help financially I believe they will.”

Keenan, Montgomery and Sikes all said they didn’t envision a place with 4,000 members when they started, with Montgomery saying they were thinking in the hundreds.

“You figure if there are 4,000 people who have a membership here that touches a huge percentage of the greater area,” Keenan said. “And you can’t even count the number of lives it’s touched in a positive way.”