Tiffin Y celebrating 100 years

The Tiffin YMCA is celebrating thirty years of community activities and services this year. According to a release, "the Association was voluntarily organized by the local citizens in April 1923," and the property, building and equipment were devised and bequested by Mrs. Della Shawhan Laird. In the late 1970s, the release states, a joint effort between the Community Pool, Inc. and the YMCA resulted in the establishment of a "complete recreational complex" at the Y's current site. The former downtown building was sold in the 1980s. Also in the 1980s, the 4th-grade swim program began, which "teaches water safety to all 4th-grade students in the Tiffin City Schools." Students from Calvert Catholic and New Riegel also have participated in the 8-week program. The Y's pool facility currently serves as the "home pool" for the Tiffin Columbian, Tiffin Calvert, Heidelberg University and Tiffin YMCA swim teams. Other developments from the 1980s and 90s included the addition of the fieldhouse in the existing building, "which included three basketball and one tennis court with an eighth-mile track," and the building of an additional basketball gym in 1999. The 1999 addition currently is home to the Tiffin YMCA's gymnastics program and competitive team, Zero Gravity. The current wellness center was created in 2005, according to the release, and a major remodeling project took place in 2016 "through a successful $2 million capital campaign." In January 2018, the Tiffin Community YMCA and the Bucyrus Area YMCA merged, and the YMCA of Bucyrus-Tiffin was formed. A ribbon-cutting at the Tiffin YMCA will take place at noon Wednesday, to celebrate and honor the 100th anniversary of the Tiffin Y and the impact it continues to have in the community. "Each YMCA has a rich history of community support and leadership," the release states.