JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Starting Feb. 1, current Florida First Coast YMCA members in Jacksonville, FL, will have another Y where they can work out. Earlier this month, Brooks Rehabilitation, a provider of inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation care in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia, donated its 60,000-square-foot Brooks Health and Fitness Center to the Y. The donation is estimated to be worth more than $16 million and is the largest donation ever made to the First Coast Y.
The donated facility is now wholly owned by the Y and has been named the Brooks Family YMCA. The facility includes a 25-yard junior Olympic pool, a warm-water therapy pool, a basketball gymnasium, a KidZone, personal training and wellness, physical therapy, adaptive sports, standard sports, group exercise and cycling classes, locker rooms, towel service, and wireless Internet.
Brooks and the Y have a goal to serve more than 10,000 Jacksonville, FL, residents within three years by building a coalition of local partners and health care providers and providing clinically proven and outcome-based programs, weight-reduction and wellness programs.
“We are so appreciative to Brooks for this tremendous gift, which will help us contribute to building strong kids, strong families and strong communities," says Paul McEntire, interim CEO of the Y of Florida's First Coast. “The YMCA's strengths are the people we bring together, the local community needs we meet, and the variety of ways we can make our community a healthier, safer and better place to live. This gift helps us accomplish all of these goals in even bigger and better ways.”