Locker rooms now modern, comfortable, and ‘safer’
Doug Miller, center, executive director of the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA, shows off one of the new red-light saunas that have been installed in the newly renovated men’s and women’s locker rooms at the Y in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
James Martin, left, president of the Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame, talks to Terese Karambelas, a major donor to the YMCA, about the recent renovations to the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA in downtown Wilkes-Barre, shortly before a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday afternoon.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Luciana Musto, second from left, the chief development officer for the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA, greets attendees at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly modernized locker rooms at the Y in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
Friends and board members of the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the new locker rooms at the downtown Wilkes-Barre facility. Cutting the ribbon with oversized scissors is Jim Thomas, CEO of the YMCA. Chief development officer Luciana Musto, second from right, thanked major donors for the project, including Jim Bobeck, shown third from left; Terese Karambelas, fourth from right; and the F.M. Kirby Foundation.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
State Rep. Eddie ‘Day’ Pashinski, center, and Vince Sperduto, representing State Sen. Marty Flynn, joined YMCA Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Popiel, right, in celebrating the new renovations at the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader
“If we weren’t home, we were here,” Jim Martin said, reminiscing about growing up at the YMCA in downtown Wilkes-Barre, starting with a Saturday program when he was 6 years old.
His dad taught karate inside the building now known as the Greater Wyoming Valley Area YMCA, and his uncle taught judo there, Martin said.
The Y eventually became such a special place to the younger Martin, he said, it’s where “I knelt down and asked my wife to marry me.”
But as Martin, who is president of the Luzerne County Sports Hall of Fame, chatted with Terese Karambelas shortly before a Wednesday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony in the newly renovated locker rooms, he said the building was more than a place to play ball, practice martial arts or even propose marriage.
It was a place where younger people, like himself, absorbed lessons from an older generation of people like Karambelas’ late husband, Clayton.
“They gave us an example of caring about the community,” he told her. “This place taught us to value community service and leadership.”
A noted philanthropist herself, Terese Karambelas is carrying on her husband’s legacy, and on Wednesday afternoon, YMCA chief development officer Luciana Musto thanked her, along with attorney Jim Bobeck and the F.M. Kirby Foundation, for their generosity in helping to modernize the YMCA’s locker rooms.
“I’m so happy that we did this,” Karambelas said as she admired the new digs.
The $1.8 million project, which took more than a year to complete, was also funded in part by grants from Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) and the state’s Local Share Account (LSA) Program.
“We’re very excited that it’s done,” YMCA executive director Doug Miller said.
The old locker rooms were “seriously outdated,” YMCA chief operating officer Jeremy Popiel said, noting the new ones are “not only modern but comfortable.”
They’re also safer, CEO Jim Thomas said, pointing out that there are four “universal changing areas,” complete with bathrooms, where parents can tend to children, or a caregiver can assist someone with a disability, without worrying about who is supposed to use a men’s locker room or a women’s locker room.
The new locker rooms have 130 lockers available for day use. There is also a monthly rental option, which is “sold out” with a wait list for the men’s locker room and “almost sold out” in the women’s locker room.
As Musto and Miller lead tours through the two main locker rooms, the most eye-catching areas may have been the new red-light saunas, which use both red and infrared light and are believed to help reduce inflammation, manage pain, and rejuvenate the skin.
On hand to offer congratulations were State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski and Vince Sperduto, a staffer from the office of State Sen. Marty Flynn. “I can’t wait to get into the Y and see what I can still do,” Pashinski said with a laugh.
The new locker rooms are already in use, Thomas said, and he’s grateful to the YMCA members and guests who patiently endured a year of renovations, noting that for months they “didn’t have a place to shower after their workouts.”
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