The Marion Family YMCA's Rec Center sees growing attendance as officials hope to expand services in the future.
When it first opened in March 2025, the center saw about half a dozen kids a day. Over the past year and half, Andrew Grimes, senior program director at the Marion Family YMCA, has seen the Rec Center quadruple its attendance.
One of the biggest changes the Rec Center has implemented is providing free memberships to all participants. At first, teens would need to pay $16 per month to get access to the center.
"We found that to be a barrier," Grimes said.
Through grants and community partnerships, the Rec Center was able to provide free memberships, transportation from Marion City Schools to the center and a free hot meal, provided by MCS. By October 2025, attendance had exploded.
Today, the Rec Center might see an average of 20-35 teens a day.
The Rec Center offers teens half a dozen spaces to connect, including a gymnasium, an art room, a computer lab and more. In addition to those spaces, the center puts on programming for just about every interest: coffee making, sewing, talks from local businesses, dances, gingerbread house making contests, Comic-Con and more.
Grimes finds creating the right programming to interest teens to be "trial and error."
The Rec Center has partnered with Ohio State University Marion and Marion Technical College to provide STEM education programming such as a linguistics activity or making a time stopper from scratch.
"We're trying to build that sense of, 'hey, here's what opportunities you have in Marion,'" Grimes said. "Looking at Ohio State Marion, looking at Tri Rivers, looking at Marion Tech, letting them know, 'hey, here's what you have right in your own backyard here. Here's what's available.'"
Through surveys of the teens, Grimes has found the kids really enjoy knowing they'll be provided food when they arrive, get to make new friends and experience healthy relationships with adults.
"We've seen it ourselves," Grimes said. "A parent comes in and says, 'hey, so-and-so doesn't have a lot of friends' or 'hey, they have trouble making friends.' They find two or three solid friends, so the kids are really welcoming in there."
The majority of the teens visiting the Rec Center come from Grant Middle School and Harding High School, which both offer transportation to the center. Brian Murphy, superintendent for MCS,
"They said to me it gives them something to do in the evening time, which I think that's the point of the program," Murphy said. "I think the more that we can keep our kids engaged in after-school programming and productive things, and they're doing a lot of productive things over there at the Rec Center, I think the better off we are."
By the center's fifth anniversary, Grimes and Jeremy Byers, CEO for the Marion Family YMCA, hope to bring financial stability to the Rec as they continue to look for ways to raise funds to support its programs.
The Rec Center offers some homework assistance, but the YMCA's staff are searching for grant funding to bring in more tutoring services, whether through partnership or professional services.
Murphy shares the Rec Center's vision for expanded tutoring services and added that he'd like to continue conversations around bringing mental health services to the Rec Center.
"I think some of the kids, not all, but some of the kids that attend some of the programming at the Rec Center after school could benefit potentially from some behavioral health support," Murphy said. "And so we have embedded partners...in our schools. They have full-time staff in our schools working with our kids and so I'd like to see them begin providing some support in the evening time over there."
Grimes continues to facilitate conversations with other districts to promote the Rec Center, but transportation from the county schools remains a big barrier.
Starting in September, the Rec Center will change its opening hours to Tuesday through Thursday, 2:30-7 p.m.
Average number of teens: 20-35 a day
Check-ins since opening: 3,382
Check-ins per month: 280 to 350
Schools with the highest attendance: Grant Middle School, Harding High School and the Buckeye Community School
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: The Rec opened a year and half ago: how's it going so far?