By By Arthur McLean Editor
The Atmore Area YMCA received a large gift from the Atmore Lion's Club Wednesday.
The Lion's Club donated the Atmore Lion's Community Center to the YMCA, allowing the organization a new future of expansion and improvement.
Mike Glavin, president of the Atmore Lion's Club, said the gift was a donation from one non-profit organization to another in hopes of better serving the community.
"We're giving this building over to an organization that will continue the civic purpose we envisioned for it," Glavin said.
Seth Dettling, president of the YMCA's board of directors, said the donation is the first step of a plan to improve and expand the Y's role and offerings in the Atmore area. "We've had big plans for a lot of years, and this is the first step. We look at this as a great opportunity, and we're humbled but we're ready," he said.
Dettling said the YMCA board will soon announce its second phase of plans to gain community feedback and support. "We hope the community will be inspired and step up with us, because we're going to need a lot of help, but we're very excited about what he have planned."
Deborah Hammonds, chairwoman of the YMCA's executive board, said the group has already talked about getting a historic designation for the building, which originally served as the county's high school.
Glavin said the YMCA would keep the name of the building as is stands now, as the Atmore Lion's Community Center.
"We felt this was the right decision to make, and we feel confident that the YMCA will use the building well and continue its civic purpose."
The building itself is appraised at nearly $500,000 and the gift includes two parcels of land surrounding the building.