The new Mathews Family YMCA, located across from the Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad building at Hudgins, was welcomed to the community last week, beginning with a donor reception last Thursday evening and continuing on Saturday with an open house celebration.

The roughly $2.5 million project was the culmination of almost two decades of effort, even before the Mathews YMCA (then housed in a building that once held a day care center) first opened its doors in February 2002.

Initially, the local YMCA board didn’t know where to put it, said Buzz Busby, co-chairman of the Capital Campaign Committee. “All of a sudden one day stepped up Josie Thorpe,” who had purchased Donk’s Theater and was willing to donate some of the surrounding land to the Y.

A few months of hard work later—including a lot of land clearing—and the soccer fields were open, Busby said. Pretty soon, “people took notice,” he said.

When board chairman Judy Castleman anno...