At least 19 businesses have been in town more than 90 years, but few have made as much of an impact on the community as the YMCA of Metropolitan Tucson.

In 1914, the first YMCA, built by the El Paso and Southwest Railroad, opened up at Congress St. and Court Ave.

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The railroad built it in exchange for the right of way to come to town. It was an exchange the Tucson community won.

"That first facility served for many years," said Dane Woll, president of YMCA Tucson. "It had a gym, bowling alley and one of the first indoor swimming pools in Tucson."

Although the filtration system wasn’t as good as it could have been, it was improved upon as the YMCA grew.

This year more than 200,000 or one in every five residents of Pima County residents participated in a YMCA program.

The Triangle Y Youth Camp opened up in 1948. It originally was a boy’s summer camp but soon after allowed all children to come and now it is utilized year round as various groups rent it out when the Y is not operating a camp.

As Tucson grew in the 50s and 60s, the downtown location wasn’t enough so the YMCA opened three branches in that time frame. It wasn’t for another 14 years that the most recent branch, the Northwest branch opened in 1982. It was first an office to set up sports leagues for residents up north. In 2002, a new facility was built that is now the largest YMCA in the state of Arizona.

All in all, there are six branches, the camp and one family child care center in Tucson and the YMCA is looking to expand.

"Today we are looking to expand in faster growing areas such as Marana, Sahuarita and Vail," Woll said. "The community has grown and so has the demand for YMCA services. Our goal is to continue to grow with the community. With a few more locations, our penetration would be more than 200,000 residents."

The thematic tag for the YMCA Tucson is: "We build strong kids, strong families, strong communities." They have accomplished this over the years by adapting to the community they are involved with to meet the specific needs.

"We were always a family place but in the 70s as more and more households had both parents in the workplace we became licensed childcare facilities," Woll said. "Today we are the largest childcare provider in Pima County."

As needs are identified the YMCA moves as quick as possible to fill and help where they can.

"For instance, with child obesity," Woll said. "We are almost at epidemic levels of childhood obesity so we are working hard on many programs to get kids active in a serious way."

The unique structure of the YMCA allows needs to be more quickly identified said Woll.

"We are a volunteer driven organization," Woll said. "There are about 200 policy setting volunteers throughout the organization in town. Very few organizations have that many policy setting folks, but it keeps us grassroots and close to those communities the branches are located in. The volunteers know the needs of their community and in the YMCA the volunteers set the policy and it is the staff’s job to implement it. There is a very appropriate balance of staff and volunteers here."

One of the policies the volunteers have set for this community is no child will be left behind on account of shortage of funds.

"It is just one of the things we stand by," Woll said. "The Y is a nonprofit organization but no child will be turned away for lack of money for membership, programs or anything."

Part of the reason the YMCA is able to serve all the people it does, is by allowing those who can afford a reasonable fee pay that and use the money raised elsewhere to cover the rest and serve more people.

"I’ve got the greatest job in Tucson," Woll said. "It is one thing to do something you feel passionate about professionally, but to be around the hundreds of volunteers of the YMCA and see how important the mission of the YMCA is to them is amazing. I love the interaction I have with the volunteers."

Having volunteers so connected to the community is an invaluable asset as Woll examines what the YMCA means to the community.

"What if there wasn’t a YMCA in town," he said. "Who would meet all of the needs that are currently being met by them? We think we have an important impact here in Tucson. People trust the YMCA."

Woll understands the trust people have in the YMCA is a result of the legacy of programs and trust built by those who came before him.

"It certainly helps in our success today," he said. "The Y is considered safe and that’s because of the staying power that we have in the community to the goals and commitments we make."

When the YMCA works with anyone, it is the duration of time spent there that has built the strong foundation it has today.

"It is great when someone comes for a two-week swim class, but we can have more impact on them over two years," Woll said. "We still have a couple of members that were members of the original Congress Street Y."

Tom Henderson is one of those members who has spent a lifetime with YMCA Tucson.

Henderson’s mother signed him up at the original downtown location in 1944 while his father was away fighting in World War II and she was working for the Red Cross in town. He was 9 years old at the time.

"She wanted to have a place for me to spend time, and to stay out of trouble," Henderson said with a chuckle, now in his 70s. "We did the usual things at the Y. A lot of swimming, ball games and foot races. We would go on field trips around downtown. And I received some adult mentoring too, which I needed since my father was away.

"It was good to have activities to do with kids my age. I remember it fondly."

Henderson stayed a member of the Y when the original location closed and the second downtown location opened at Fifth Ave. and Sixth St. He was a member there throughout college and grad school at the University of Arizona. And when the latest downtown location opened in 1992 he moved with them.

"I haven’t joined any health clubs but I have been to them while away on business trips and the hotel offers you complementary visits to the health club," Henderson said. "The atmosphere is just too stuffy in there for me. It’s all business. It isn’t that way at the Y. It’s cultural, it’s very diverse and I like that."

They YMCA has been so much a part of his life that Henderson didn’t like to think about what the community might be like if there was no YMCA.

"I see boys come in to the downtown branch and play basketball or do something and I wonder sometimes what they would be doing if there was no Y," he said. "Without the Y there might be more troubled young people and adults. We are definitely fortunate that there is."