Sarasota YMCA loses partner, won't bring Silver Sneakers back

Funding and the Silver Sneakers program were the main topics of the evening as patrons of the Evalyn Sadlier Jones YMCA gathered for a rally Tuesday.

New Y leaders shared highlights of the organization’s progress in the first few months of operation: reaching a total of 4,905 membership units, employing 256 staff members and receiving 501(c)(3) status as a nonprofit.

Leaders did acknowledge challenges though, such as monetary setbacks and issues negotiating a deal to bring back the Silver Sneakers program.

After the Sarasota Family YMCA, now called the Safe Children Coalition, announced it would close its two fitness branches in July, local groups sprang into action to help keep both the Frank G. Berlin Sr. and the Evalyn Sadlier Jones branches open. They officially took over in September.

Financial discussions

Nearly three months after reopening under new management, the organization hopes to purchase the two sites and Y buildings in March, operating with a lease until then. Leaders anticipate the purchase deal will bring with it about $4.4 million of debt, with an organizational goal of paying it off by 2023.

Lauren Kohl, a real estate attorney who has been helping the Y negotiate, said Safe Children Coalition is offering the land to the Y for about 25% of what it’s worth.

“I ask all of you, if your next door neighbor said, ‘You can buy my $400,000 house for $100,000,’ what would you do?” Kohl said. “You’d buy it. So now it’s about, how do we get the money?”

Since September, the Y has received $572,584 in private donations, and Marc Shaefer, an investment banker who is helping run the Y’s finances, said each month, the Y is getting closer to breaking even.

He projects the Y will have $60,000 of positive cash in January. Additionally, the Y has $550,000 in capital but is in the process of collecting sponsorships totaling $1.73 million.

However, one of the three main partners that helped forge the deal to keep the YMCAs open has since backed out. Project Stoked, a community investment firm, will no longer help fund the Y, which then leaves Save Our Y and Dreamers Academy charter school as partners.

Schaefer said he wasn’t sure why Project Stoked backed out, but it could have to do with the changing totals needed from each group to move ahead. 

“The amounts have been moving around on the deal because there are a lot of moving parts,” he said. “I think the amount that we ultimately were talking about was going to be difficult for them, and I think the mission wasn’t quite aligning with what they needed to do.”

Project Stoked could not be reached at the time of publication. However, Schaefer said it shouldn’t set the Y back.

Silver Sneakers

Many people asked Y leaders when the Silver Sneakers program — a fitness program included with many Medicare plans — would return. The answer, in short: not anytime soon.

Charlie Campbell, chairman of the transitional board, said talks with Tivity Health, the company that administers Silver Sneakers, have not resulted in a deal.

Tivity offered $3 for each of 10 monthly visits that a Silver Sneakers participant would be allowed to make to a Y location. Campbell said the typical Y membership is $40 a month. So, Y leaders tried to negotiate with Tivity for $5 a visit or 15 visits a month, but Tivity refused.

“We tried any number of ways to break through this brick wall,” Campbell said. “We just can’t do the contract the way it exists now.”