After a series of closed-door meetings with leadership at the Old Town-Orono YMCA, concerned gymnasts and parents have decided to host their own public forum about the future of the organization and its competitive gymnastics team.
Parents and gymnasts were “blindsided” by an announcement on Facebook earlier this month that the competitive team would be paused in late June. That post said the YMCA in Old Town “will continue to focus on, and offer preschool and recreational gymnastics programming.”
Old Town-Orono YMCA leadership cited safety and coaching availability concerns about the competitive team in a follow-up post, but parents and the team’s booster club say they’ve had trouble getting more details and answers.
The YMCA hosted a limited parent meeting on May 21 with a select group of attendees, and then had a larger closed-door meeting with current parents and gymnasts on Wednesday night. Some parents have been hoping for a fully public conversation about the situation and the future of the organization, and have decided to host their own event with team members that is open to the entire community.
A flyer announcing that public event says that “big changes are brewing at the YMCA” and encourages community members to “come share your concerns and vision for the future of our beloved OTO YMCA.”
The forum is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday at the gazebo by the Old Town Riverfront.
“We are just so floored by what’s been going on at the YMCA that we are going to call for an open forum at this point and just run it ourselves,” said Sarah Twombly, a booster club member whose daughter is on the team.
Twombly said the parents are inviting “the entire Old Town region and community, all Old Town YMCA members, anyone who has been impacted by this Y to come to talk a little bit about what their experience at the Y has been.”
She said the hope is to break into small groups to talk about potential issues and how people would like to see the local YMCA grow. Meeting minutes will be taken and provided to YMCA leadership, she said.
“We’re just going to try and do what we had hoped the YMCA was going to do themselves,” Twombly said.
Both Twombly and booster club president Tonya George said many specifics about the competitive program’s future were still hard to come by at Wednesday night’s meeting between YMCA staff, board members, parents and gymnasts. But a quickly moving effort to have executive board members from the boosters and YMCA board meet together has provided some optimism for a productive path forward.
“I went into the meeting very anxious, almost tensed up, and we did not really get any answers to a lot of the questions that were asked — everything was kind of pushing the can down the road, a lot of vague discussions but again still no specifics in regards to the safety concerns, no specifics in regards to the financials,” George said on Thursday. “However, we did feel heard by the board members that were present. We were very happy to see that they were stepping up to their call of duty and they seemed very engaged, listening a lot.”
She emerged from Wednesday night’s “very tense” meeting with some cautious optimism but a continued concern about how the uncertainty is creating challenges for the team’s young athletes.
George hoped on Thursday that having the two executive boards meeting could lead to positive action. She said Monday’s public forum is not specifically a booster club event. And the goal is to hear community-wide concerns and ideas, not just those limited to the competitive gymnastics team.
“This is actually more for the broader community and not just the gymnastics team,” George said. “This is the piece that everybody’s been asking for, to be opened up. So we’re looking for the rock wall climbers, the people that go to the gym, anybody that might have a say in the Y, anybody that visits the Y, or even just the community members that have taxpayer money that goes to the Y.”
Scott Wilcox, the CEO of the Old Town-Orono YMCA, has not responded to multiple requests for comments.
