Studer Community Institute

Levin YMCA gift: Celebrating wellness — "mind, body and soul"

February 11, 2015
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ community-dashboard

The Levin family is no stranger to charitable giving. Teri Levin and Fred Levin have given to dozens of causes in the Pensacola area and elsewhere, including Fred’s landmark gifts to the University of Florida. But there was something in the portfolio of giving they wanted to add. “Fred and I talked and we decided we wanted to give something in Pensacola, something that was tied to a legacy about what we believe in,” Teri Levin says. The YMCA of Northwest Florida’s dedication to children and to promoting “health and wellness of the mind, body and soul” she says is what led them to settle on making the Y’s new flagship downtown location part of the family legacy. The Levin family announced Wednesday that they would make a $1 million donation to the new Y. The planned $15 million project will more than double the space available for youth and community programs that the Y now has at the outdated North Palafox Street location. Read more about that here. “Fred played basketball there and he has fond memories there, as did Allen (her late husband) and as do I,” she says. “This is a way that we could leave a legacy to carry forward, especially to children who may be underprivileged, because no child will be turned away. “Seniors can go there and get therapy that they may need. And teenagers...there are some many programs the Y can’t handle where they are. Now they’ll be able to do all the things that they want to do.” The new Y will be built in what is now the parking lot of the old Pensacola News Journal property at Tarragona and Intendencia streets. It will be a 52,000 square foot facility that will allow the Y to offer expanded classes, after-school programs, senior programming and more. It also will improve handicapped-accessibility of the Y’s facility. That location — a prime spot in the growing heart of downtown Pensacola — also was appealing, Teri Levin says. “We were definitely drawn to the location and the convenience of it for downtown,” she says. “People are working during the day, they could walk to the Y and get in a quick workout, take a nutrition class, and with everything else being built around there it seemed like a natural.” The Levin family joins the Bear Family Foundation, which donated $1 million and Quint and Rishy Studer, who donated $5 million and the land at Intendencia and Tarragona streets, as lead donors to the project. Levin looks forward to the vision of the new facility coming to life. “The design just has so much light, the pool will be bigger and nicer, the handicapped accessibility will be improved… And every child who wants to go there can go and learn about fitness mind, body and soul, learn to eat with proper nutrition and hopefully have a chance for a brighter future.”

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Levin YMCA gift: Celebrating wellness — "mind, body and soul"

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