Get Ira Besdansky talking about the mission of the Keene Family YMCA – and stand back. He is a man with much passion about what the Y does for this community and, even more important, what more it could do.

"Serving families, especially young families, is this organization's niche in the community," Besdansky stated without reserve. "And the changes we've made and are making speak to that mission."

As executive director for the last three years, Besdansky is guiding the Y in putting that family focus into practice. And he's on a crusade to educate the community about the Y's mission and what it needs to carry it out.

"We hear over and over again that the Y is just a bunch of lawyers who play racquetball at lunch," Besdanksy says. "Well, that may have been true 30 years ago, when Keene didn't have all these other fitness clubs. Then, if you were exercising, you came to the Y."

Today's membership is very different, he said. Of 4,164 total memberships in 2004, more than 60 percent – 2,529 – were family memberships. And, while membership has grown by 35 percent over the last three years, family memberships are increasing while individual memberships are decreasing.

What's more, most of the Y's members – more than 95 percent, according to a recent membership survey – drive to the Y rather than walk, which belies another thing Besdansky hears on a regular basis, that it's important for the Y to remain downtown.

"Location is not meaningful to our members," he said, "it's (the availability of) parking that is most important."

And parking is not easily available to Y members. Located on Roxbury, a busy street off Main St, the building has only five dedicated parking spaces. Y users must take their chances on Roxbury St.; on Roxbury Plaza, a short side-street across from the Y; or in a city parking structure off Roxbury Plaza. There are regular traffic back-ups as parents pick up or drop off their kids. And about two months ago, three kids in a family were hit by a car in the cross-walk in front of the Y.

""We see so many close calls," Besdansky said.

Since he came in 2002, Besdansky has been promoting changes in the Y's policies as well as physical changes in the facilities to put the family focus into practice. At the same time, he's worked hard to lay the groundwork for the Y's board to make the momentous decision of whether to completely renovate the current building or build a new state-of-the-art facility.

All of the changes in the last three years speak to the mission of serving families better, Besdansky said. These include covering more activities for kids in the family membership fee of $57 a month – activities like swimming, judo and gymnastics classes – as well as scheduling with the family in mind.

"We try to include many needs of a family within the same block of time," Besdansky explained. "So maybe a family comes at night and their two-year old goes to child care, the seven-year-old is in the basketball program, the ten-year-old goes rock climbing and the 14-year-old goes to the teen center. Meanwhile, Mom exercises and Dad takes a class."

It's called parallel activity, he said. And there're also interactive activities, where families can do things together – maybe participate in family swim.

"Now, finally, studies are proving what the Y has always known," Besdansky said, "that families who play together form a bond. We're trying to put families in situations where they have the opportunity to do things together and to take away the financial barriers for doing that."

The Keene Y has also made some significant changes in its child care program in the last few years. One of the largest in the area, the Y serves 115-120 children in day care and before-and-after school programs. It has expanded and renovated the child care facilities and moved them all to the same level. There's currently a waiting list. And a new Teen Center has opened across the street from the Y. A recent evening event drew more than 100 teenagers.

Yet, despite all the progress, Besdansky said he feels "like he is shoveling against a tide. We need a space that is more conducive to serving families. If we were to build a new building, it would look nothing like the current facility."

Renovation costs for the current building would be close to $8 million, Besdansky said, renovations that would bring the facility mechanically up to date, make it handicap accessible and safer and more attractive.

"Even then, we'd still have the parking problem," Besdansky said.

On the other hand, constructing a new, 45,000-square-foot state-of-the-art building would cost about $6.5 million.

"I'm constantly taking resources from services and having to put them into an old building," Besdansky said. "It's a crappy decision to have to make on a daily basis."

The YMCA board of directors will make a decision within the next few months on whether to undertake a capital campaign to renovate the current building or build a new one. Already, it's looked at four locations within a mile radius of downtown Keene.

"Something is going to happen," Besdansky said. "This is not satisfactory. To do nothing is not an option. We're already doing so much for families, but we could do so much more."

Go Back