PITTSFIELD — Jessica Rumlow lived in six states while growing up as her father moved from job to job within the same company. The one constant for her in all that traveling was the YMCA. She worked for three of them in two states.
So, when Rumlow's husband left the Navy for a job at General Dynamics and the couple moved to the Berkshires from Georgia seven years ago, she was happy to learn that the YMCA had a branch in Pittsfield.
"It was one of the first places we visited," she said.
After serving for eight months as interim CEO and executive director of the Berkshire Family YMCA, Rumlow received the job on a permanent basis in January. Her most daunting task: overseeing the $11.2 million renovation of the YMCA's 111-year old building in downtown Pittsfield, a project that is intended to modernize the facility and add 31 slots to the organization's child care program.
We spoke with Rumlow recently about her long connection to the YMCA, her history of moving, the current status of the renovation project and where the YMCA might he headed.
Q: Where does the renovation project stand at this point?
A: We are continuing to move along. We're still in the middle of our fundraising and also securing our big financing. The construction documents are well underway. We have slowed down a bit due to the pandemic, but we have never taken our eyes off the goal, which is that this is very much a renovation that's needed for the community.
We truly believe that, despite everything we're going through right now, the reasons why we started this project are still very much relevant, and we plan to see this project all the way through.
Q: How has the pandemic affected the project?
A: Just the fundraising. The prospects right now have been geared toward supporting us through the COVID-19 part of it. Now, it's just refocusing the fundraising side of things to make sure we're refocusing on the capital campaign.
Q: The Eagle reported in February that construction was expected to begin in May. When will it begin now?
A: I would say mid- to late summer is when we still hope to start.
Q: How long will it take?
A: Once we start, it's 18 to 24 months.
Q: With the pandemic still here, what kinds of programs will the YMCA be able to offer this summer?
A: Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we can't operate our camps at the usual locations. We have had to move our programs in-house.
In Pittsfield, there will be 30 to 40 children we'll be able to provide care to. In North Adams, it's 40 to 50 kids. Fortunately, in North Adams, we have some land. In Pittsfield, we don't have additional land to use. That's why the numbers will be lower at the Pittsfield branch.
Q: When and how did you originally get involved with the YMCA?
A: I started out basically volunteering to teach swim lessons at the Southwick County YMCA in central Wisconsin when I was 15. I worked all the way through high school as a swim instructor, lifeguard and aquatics instructor.
When I went to college at St. Norbert (in Wisconsin), it was right outside of Green Bay, so, I got a job as a sophom*ore lifeguarding and teaching lessons at the YMCA in greater Green Bay. When I graduated from St. Norbert, I stayed at the YMCA as 21st century after school program then transitioned into an assistant manager at a welcome center at one of their branches. ... Even in my college days, my parents moved to Kentucky, and I actually worked for a YMCA for summer camp only in Owensboro.
Q: It sounds like you have a good understanding of what the YMCA is and what it does.
A: At 16, I didn't necessarily think I would have a career at a YMCA, but when I graduated from college, my goal was to be an aquatics director at a Y.
I always kind of saw myself in a YMCA, I think, because I really just align myself with the mission of the Y and the values of caring, honesty, respect and responsibility and how we put those into practice. And being part of the community that you live in, I think, is huge.
Q: When you became the YMCA's permanent executive director, the news release said that you had lived in Springfield. Where are you from originally?
A: I moved to Massachusetts when I was 5. I was born in Louisiana, lived in Texas for a couple of years, in Connecticut for a couple and then we landed in Springfield for about seven years. ... Looking at my childhood between Massachusetts and Wisconsin is where I was raised. Every time we moved, it was work-related reasons for my dad.
Q: Was the YMCA a stabilizing influence for you when you had to move so much?
A: The Y was a part of who I am more in my time in Wisconsin versus my time in Springfield. It definitely shaped who I am. As a teenager, it gave me a place to be. ... My friends were there. It was a good place to grow up.
Q: Did you move a lot when your husband was in the Navy?
A: We had a couple of months in Connecticut, then spent all eight years based [at] a station in Kings Bay, Ga. We were lucky we didn't have to move around. My daughter was actually born in Connecticut.
Q: Selling the Ponterril property on East Acres Road was a key component of the then-Pittsfield Family YMCA's three-year strategic plan in 2010. What are the plans now?
A: We still own the property. It's being leased as a solar field at this point in time. We don't have any future plans to sell it, and we have quite a bit of time on the lease. Once the lease is done, who knows what we'll be able to do?
Ideally, I'd love to see it be a location for a camp again down the road. ... At this point, our main focus is on the capital project for the Pittsfield branch, but never say never.
