BOX ELDER, S.D. (KELO) –The Liberty Center YMCA in Box Elder is seeing great growth in its short time. Right now they are in phase one with several opportunities for families in the community.
“What’s really cool about it is it’s a big open shared space. And because we are a family friendly organization, you’ll see parents that are working out there lifting some weights, you’ll see some of the kids there in the kids zone running around in the obstacle course, you’ll see some of the teenagers learning how to dunk that basketball,” Liberty Center Branch Manager Augustin Caraza said.
Senator John Thune made a stop in the community and visited the facility today.
“Yeah, it’s exciting. I think we’ve seen a lot of growth, a lot of progress in Box Elder, Douglas School District, Ellsworth Air Force Base. And the growth is going to intensify as folks start coming in here with the B-21,” Senator John Thune said.
As a new YMCA, the LIberty Center is able to adjust its programs based on what the community needs.
“Any feedback we get from members, we just take it and we run with it. So we started up Kung-Fu, we started up Sports Conditioning. We got feedback, about some non-physical stuff and so we’ve been doing knit and crochet, we’ve been doing some arts and crafts,” Caraza said.
As this community continues to grow, having everyday options for families is important.
“Connected to service members or in some cases civilian but either way, they need infrastructure. They need the capacity to deal with the daily requirements of their lives and this is something I think will serve the community, the school district, and families on the base really well,” Senator Thune said.
The Liberty Center is currently working on the next two phases for their facility.
