GLASGOW — Emmy Lou Dickinson remembers the day the pool opened at the Barren County Family YMCA.

“I got out there and it was dark and it was still locked up. I sat in my car and waited until it opened so I could go in the pool,” she said.

Dickinson, a Glasgow resident, has given to the YMCA in many ways. Not only has she contributed financially, she has also been a part-time employee, working the front desk, and has taught adult swim classes.   

On Tuesday the YMCA will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Dickinson thinks the YMCA is a “huge asset” to the community.

“I still go to the Y. I swim and I take yoga,” she said.

The effort to bring a YMCA to Glasgow was spearheaded by Dr. Barret Lessenberry, an orthopedic surgeon, who led a group of people in making the idea of opening a YMCA a reality.

“Twenty years ago I’m sure there were a lot of people who thought we had lost our minds,” said Lessenberry, chairman of the YMCA board of directors.

The building that houses the YMCA cost $1.6 million. The money came from donations, both individual and corporate.

“We did a little bit of everything to raise money,” said Terry Bunnell, vice chairman of the board. “There were bake sales. There were a lot of clubs that donated money and they put on events to raise money for the Y.”

Land for the building was donated by Lessenberry’s aunt, Lois Gray, and land for the playing fields adjacent to the building were donated by Joe Leech and his late brother, Pete Leech.

Major financial contributions came from Eaton Axle, R.R. Donnelly and Sons, Glasgow Railway and the late Ervin Houchens.

Don Doty, retired plant manager for Eaton Axle, admitted he was a skeptic at first.

“To be quite frank, I wasn’t sure that it was an idea the community would support, but there were some people who were very much behind it so I thought the least I could do was help out,” he said.

Doty now thinks having a YMCA is a great thing for the community.

“As far as I know, for a city the size of Glasgow, it is probably the biggest and best in this part of the state,” he said.  

The day Lessenberry was convinced a YMCA was going to be developed was when $60,000 was contributed in one afternoon.

“That was a pretty big day considering when you didn’t have anything,” he said.

As money for the facility was being raised, YMCA-sponsored programs and events were being held at a variety of venues.

“We had lots of programs at churches,” Lessenberry said. “Anybody that we asked was kind enough to give us access to their building so we could run some programs.”

One of the things the YMCA did early was start after-school childcare programs.

Ronny Doyle, former director of pupil personnel for  Barren County Schools, worked with YMCA officials in developing a variety of programs, including childcare.

“First of all, I think the YMCA is a dream come true for our community. It offers so many things at this time and point that we did not have and just everybody working together we were able to put this facility together,” he said.

The after school program was just another “excellent benefit for parents that had problems taking their children somewhere or feeling safe,” he said. With the YMCA sponsoring after school programs, Doyle said parents could be confident their children would be safe.

The YMCA facility opened in 1992, with a pool and a gym. The addition of the youth gym was completed in the late 1990s.

“The facility is paid for so there is no debt on the facility,” said Bunnell. “That is key for us to keep our memberships down.”

Bunnell emphasized the YMCA is a community project.

“It started as a community project and it continues today to be a community project,” he said.  

He also pointed out young people, including his own children, don’t know of a time when there wasn’t a YMCA in Glasgow.

“I think that’s pretty neat,” he said.