Part 2. The Grubb YMCA: Significant Present and Uncertain Future This is the second of a two-part series on the history, significance, and future of the Grubb YMCA in Des Moines, Iowa. The article is the result of a mutual curiosity about the Grubb Y shared between Abena Imhotep and me. Abena Imhotep is founder and Executive Director of Sankofa Strategies Consulting, and we were connected through the Urban Experience Magazine. We had learned that the Grubb is slated to be replaced, if not demolished, and the City of Des Moines plans to construct a multi-milliondollar North Side Community Recreation Center on the site adjacent to the Grubb by 2025. We spoke with Ramona Bates and Rick Singleton, both of whom have worked at the Grubb YMCA for about twenty years. The community spirt and pride found in the Crocker YMCA was instrumental in creating the Grubb YMCA in 1994 to replace the Crocker Street YMCA, which was destroyed by urban renewal in 1959. Community leaders in the area pushed to have a YMCA to serve the community which was majority Black. Throughout the decades since its founding, the Grubb YMCA has been a destination for the neighborhood as well as for people outside who valued the welcoming atmosphere. The building itself, built in 1940, had originally been part of Dowling School but the City of Des Moines purchased it in 1982, repurposing it as the Model City Community Center. Ten years later, with the help of activists such as Evelyn Davis, and donations from philanthropists such as John Grubb, it became the Grubb YMCA, serving the community in the immediate vicinity and beyond. Renovations were made, including the addition of a swimming pool and basketball courts. But the Grubb YMCA has always been more than a sum of its parts. More than a sports center, the Grubb works with the community, hosting dances and GRD programs, aiding and encouraging many young people with their education goals. Rick talks to the kids, listens, and builds a relationship. They learn confidence, understanding that “an outside force can make you have a bad day but it can’t make you have a bad life.” As Ramona Bates described, “The Grubb is an opportunity. This place gives you opportunity and hope.” Rick developed the ‘YMCA without walls’-- taking the YMCA to the community and bringing the community into the Y, explaining: “We would do community events – parades, concerts, block parties, easter egg hunts, cookouts, back to school bash, farmer’s markets.” He set up programs to help students of all ages. Because of Rick’s successful initiatives, executive director Cameron Nicholson created a special position for him as the Outreach Director. But the Grubb was not without its problems. Racism and sexism persisted in citywide YMCA administration and the Grubb leaders had to rely on their diplomacy to negotiate, challenge and change unequal practices initially imposed on the Grubb YMCA by the upper administration. For instance, membership in any YMCA branch grants reciprocal use of facilities in all other branches. The sole exception to this rule was membership in the Grubb branch: from the Grubb’s founding in 1994, the Board of Directors for the greater YMCA of Des Moines ruled that Grubb membership wouldn’t grant access to any other YMCA branch. This ruling was not reversed until 2006, when Vernon Delpesce, the CEO of YMCA of Greater Des Moines, mandated that this would no longer be tolerated. Delpesce also changed discriminatory practice that refused family memberships to people in same- sex relationships. Rick recalled the heated discussions at the YMCA and explained the drive that fueled the persistence in fighting for these changes: “Nobody gives you your worth. That’s inherent. 19
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