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DISCOVER YOUR Y
When you join the YMCA, you’re joining more than a gym, you’re joining a cause. Together, with the 18,000 individuals our Y serves every year, we are able to improve our community’s health by connecting people to the resources they need.
While membership dues help operate our facilities, donations to the YMCA’s Annual Campaign financially support evidence-based programs that address the leading cause of death in our community such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Furthermore, your donation funds swim lessons, youth programs, afterschool enrichment, services for military families, college scholarships and so much more!
WE ARE SUMMERVILLE
Our History
In 1966, 150 women in the Summerville community founded the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) to establish adult programs promoting Christian values. An enthusiastic response from the community prompted the organization to expand its program offerings. As the Y’s profile in the community grew, so did its scope of vision. In 1973, Jean Gantt and the Y (renamed the YWCO) organized the Y’s first annual Flowertown Festival. In undertaking this significant town event, the Y had grown beyond offering adults-only programs to include the entire Summerville community.
To more accurately reflect the organization’s growing diversity, the YWCO voted to become a YMCA in 1976. Three years later, an outdoor pool and sports fields were opened at Oakbrook.
Our Growth
As the community wishes changed and residents requested not only improvements in the quality and scope of youth programs, but also increased program offerings for adults, the YMCA Board of Directors took on the task of building a wellness facility in the Downtown area of Summerville. Property for the Downtown Facility was acquired through the efforts of the Salisbury Family and Coca-Cola, who sold the historic bottling plant to the Y for a bargain price. Our John Tupper Gymnastics Center was opened in 1997 and the Downtown Summerville Facility opened in May 2002.
In January 2009, the Summerville Family YMCA opened its third facility, the YMCA at The Ponds. The YMCA at The Ponds is located south of town, in a community called The Ponds (a Greenwood Development). This facility was made possible, in large part, because of a $1 million land donation and a $3 million construction cost gift presented to the Y from Greenwood Communities and Resorts.
Our Leadership Team
- Chris Sapp, Chief Executive Officer
- Catie Michalski, Chief Financial Officer
- Bianca McCoy, Human Resource Director
Downtown
- Kim Howell, Downtown Executive Director
- Melissa Frink, Fitness Director
- Hannah Silvia, Director of Community Health
- Cassie Dozier, Membership Director
- Geny Moringlane, Child Development Director
- Jordan Devlin, Gymnastics Director
The Ponds
- Jana Chanthabane, The Ponds Executive Director
- Ashley Schillaci, Membership Director
- Natalia Stallings, Sports Director
- Tricia Lindsley, Child Development Coordinator
- Michelle Powell, Fitness Coordinator
- Liz Mataya, Director of Community Health
Oakbrook
- Jill Lewellyn, Oakbrook Executive Director
- Erika Stubbs, Aquatics Director
- Andrea Dorman, Family Program Director
- Barbara Gonzalez, Programs Assistant & Adult Sports Coordinator
- Stephanie Adams, Oakbrook Sports Director
2020 Board of Directors
Vice Chairman, President-Elect – Nelson Akwari
Treasurer – Charles Hudgens
- Brandt Shelbourne
- Kathy Randall
- Ryan McElheny
- Tim Kennedy
- Nelson Akwari
- James Cherry
- Greg Jones
- Steve Smith
- Chris Ackerman
- Penny Merriman
- Mike Gore
- Lisa Tupper
- Corey Greene
- Sherry Ensley
- Katie McCravy
- Charles Hudgens