YMCA Brantford gets a gift

Thanks to the help of a generous donation from a Brantford family, the Brantford YMCA will team up with Laurier University, for a new athletic and aquatics centre.

The new centre will be built in the downtown core, on the south side of Harmony Square and is just one more piece in the growing redevelopment of the city. The partnership with Laurier is the first of its kind in North America — involving a university, and the “Y” — but construction of the complex was made possible by a generous $1-million donation by the family of Roger and Edith Davis. The owner of Davis Fuels has stepped forward to support many projects in the Brantford area.

Roger Davis says, it’s not only good for business, it’s good for the community as well: “When they told us how the YMCA and Loaurier were getting together, we thought it was a tremendous idea because it’s a sports complex and a learning complex — so we got involved. The payback is that it seems to come back in friendship from our customers and loyalty to buy product from us. So we get it back in the end. That’s the main reason. It works well for Brantford and the community.”

Construction of the $58-million complex will begin this summer and should be finished by the end of 2016.