Sault Y closes RYTAC (boat club) - financially unsustainable

NEWS RELEASE

SAULT STE. MARIE YMCA

*************************

SAULT STE. MARIE, ON (April 3, 2012) - The Sault Ste. Marie YMCA announces the closure of RYTAC, the Rotary/YMCA Tennis and Aquatic Centre located on the St. Mary’s River just east of Pine Street. 

Built in the 1969, RYTAC has served the community for over 40 years, but with escalating costs and new opportunities, the closure of this facility is necessary.

The Sault Ste. Marie YMCA extends an appreciative thank you to the Rotary Club of Sault Ste. Marie for the RYTAC partnership of the past 43 years.

Starting in the summer of 2012, a new and innovative partnership with the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board will enable the YMCA to offer similar summer programming at Camp Korah with daily busing available from the YMCA to the camp.

Traditionally, RYTAC has provided summer programming (day camps) for children and youth focusing on tennis, rowing, sailing and volleyball. 

A tennis club has also been in place at the site for many years.

“The effort and financial resources required to run and maintain RYTAC operations for the summer session is no longer viable,” Kim Caruso, acting CEO says. “The operation simply does not generate the revenue required to sustain both the facility and the programming.”

With over $3-million in renovations recently completed at the YMCA, we need to focus on our core infrastructure in one location,” says Sault Ste. Marie YMCA Board Chair Wayne Greco. 

“This year we hope to start a new tradition with our partners at the Huron-Superior Catholic School Board and Camp Korah.”

Constructed on a 180-acre parcel of land on Nettleton Lake in the northwestern portion of Sault Ste. Marie, Camp Korah is the board's outdoor learning facility.  

It provides a unique learning opportunity for HSCDSB students by offering orienteering, wilderness survival, cross-country skiing and other programming. 

Now it will also offer similar YMCA-based summer programming for children and youth, previously provided at RYTAC.

“The board is very excited about this new initiative with the Sault Ste. Marie YMCA. Our students have long enjoyed the wonderful learning opportunities Camp Korah offers and we are certain children in the YMCA summer program will realize similar benefits,” said Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board Director John Stadnyk.

In addition, the Sault Ste. Marie YMCA will continue to offer summer programming for children and youth at Sault College and on site at the YMCA on McNabb Street. 

The summer program guide is now available.

The Sault Ste. Marie YMCA wishes to acknowledge and thank the Huron-Superior Catholic School Board for partnering in this opportunity and supporting the YMCA in the delivery of summer programming for the children and youth of this community.

For more on Camp Korah, please visit the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board website.

For more on the summer programs available, please visit the Sault Ste. Marie YMCA website.

*************************