OFFICERS

Chip Watts, Chair – Watts Realty
Gregg McCormick, Vice Chair – Vulcan Materials Company
Teresa Shufflebarger, Immediate Past Chair – Live Smart Alabama, UAB
Charles DeBardeleben, Treasurer – Steward Machine
Kemberly Blackledge, Secretary – Guidehouse

BOARD MEMBERS

Alan Lincoln – Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED
Bolaji Kukoyi – Dynamic Civil Solutions
Brandy Phillips – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama
Bree Johnson – Robert Half
Don Lutomski – CAPTRUST
Greg Weyandt – Welch Group
Helen Catherine Smith – LAH Sotheby’s International Realty
Kathy Boswell –  B. Intentional
Larry Blackstone – Regions Bank, Retired
Laura Lombard – YMCA Retirement Fund, Retired
Marta Self – Regions Bank
Malcolm Morrow – Vulcan Pumps
Rachelle Peeler – Protective Life
Ralph Williams – Alabama Power
Robby Hayes – Brasfield & Gorrie
Robert Baugh – Sirote & Permutt
Robert Simon – Corporate Realty
Roman Gary – CCR Architecture & Interiors
Tara Bryant – Viva Health
Tim Blair – Blair Properties
Verlon Salley – UAB Medicine

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Phyllis Hall – Chair – Shook & Fletcher Insulation
Wayne Houston – Secretary – Vulcan Materials Company, Retired
Cecil Bostany – Warren Averett, Retired
Joseph S. Bluestein -Dentons Sirote
Joseph Mays, Jr. – Bradley, Retired

BRANCH BOARD CHAIRS

Alabaster YMCA –  Pending
Greystone YMCA – Meredith Smith, Mauldin & Jenkins, CPA
Hoover YMCA –  Laura Lombard, Y Retirement Fund (retired)
Mountain Brook YMCA – Georgia Haggerty, United States Federal Courts and Woodard Peay, The Welch Group
Pelham YMCA – Grace Smitherman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama
Shades Valley YMCA –  Jon Harbuck, Harbuck Keith & Holmes, LLC
Trussville YMCA –  Josh Wooten, Corey Watson Attorneys
YMCA Camp Cosby –  James Coco, Self-Employed
Downtown Youth Center & Northeast YMCA –  Alicia Lumpkin-Whitfield, City of Birmingham

Federal Tax ID #63-0352194

THE HISTORY OF THE BIRMINGHAM Y

Thirteen years after the City of Birmingham was founded, community leaders established the YMCA.

Temporary housing was available at the original downtown location along with classes in mathematics, shorthand, as well as a reading room and library. As many as ten religious services were held each week.

By 1936, community outreach had spread from West End to Glen Iris. As a result, the first branch was built at Five Points South in 1940.

A branch for black members, organized in 1937, was built in 1951. Suburban branches followed: Northeast and Shades Valley were built in 1962, Fourth Avenue West in 1970, and the original Shelby County branch in 1973.

Conceived in 1922 as a complete outdoor recreational center, Camp Cosby moved to its Alpine, Alabama site in 1972.

Summer of 2005 would prove to be the single biggest leap for the Metropolitan Birmingham YMCA when the association purchased four branches of SportsFirst from Baptist Health Systems. The communities surrounding the Greystone,  Mountain Brook, and Trussville branches remain vital service areas for the Y.  At the end of the year, the Five Points Family Branch closed to member service and was used for transition while the Downtown Youth Center was being completed.

Following the association’s largest capital campaign in its history, a city-wide Youth Center in the heart of downtown Birmingham was built and opened in late 2006.

In 2010, the association opened a full-service branch in the Alabaster community, and by the end of 2011, the largest single facility in the association’s history opened in Hoover.

Beginning in 2021, the Y embarked upon another new adventure, this one solely focused to address the inequities in the Birmingham suburb of Roebuck.  The Northeast YMCA underwent a renovation to transform it into a true community resource center.  Inside the walls of the reimagined space, the Y will feature an early learning space in the form of the State of Alabama’s First Class Pre-K, dedicated space for youth and teen programs and mentorship opportunities.

THE Y TODAY

The YMCA of Greater Birmingham is a charitable organization dedicated to making our community a healthier place to live.  Since opening our doors in 1884 here in Birmingham, our focus has remained the same:  to connect people of all ages and backgrounds to bridge the gap in community needs.  Over the years, our programs and facilities have changed, but not our mission of service to the community.

Today, the YMCA of Greater Birmingham serves the metro Birmingham area through its 7 Membership Branches, 2 Youth Centers, and Camp Cosby Sleepaway Camp.

Our Youth Development programming supports families and youth through a variety of character-building programs including Afterschool Academy, Summer Day Camps, 1st Class Pre-K, Sleepaway Camp, Youth Sports, Kindergarten Readiness, Swim Team, Swim Lessons, and Youth in Government.

The Y’s membership services provide access to contemporary group exercise classes, cardio and strength equipment, aquatic facilities, tennis courts, and gyms –  all focused to provide Healthy Living options and programming to the community.

The Y’s commitment to Social Responsibility is best demonstrated through its recent response to the 2020 pandemic and the variety of community initiatives it implemented, including Red Cross Blood Drives, Farmers to Families Food Distribution, Volunteering, Emergency Childcare for Essential Workers, Financial Aid, and numerous collaborations with like-minded community partners to help overcome the financial, social, and economic disparities brought about by the crisis.

The following statement has been true throughout the Y’s great history:

“We lift up each other.  That’s what we do.  Our goal is to create a movement for good in Greater Birmingham.  The Y connects people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, and incomes to shape lives and build community.”

Tim Blair, Past Board Chair of YMCA of Greater Birmingham