A young family’s perspective

To the Editor:

I was born in the area, graduated from MLHS, left to get my four-year degree, and returned here to work and raise my family. With all this talk of recruiting young people to move back here, my husband and I with our 3-year-old are the definition of what you’re looking for. The key is, not only do you need to attract young families, you need to retain them. Between college and moving back here, I spent 3 years living in Luverne and a short time working in Madelia. I had a wonderful small town experience in both. Madelia was wrapping up their downtown revival. In my short time in Luverne I watched the city, chamber, and members of the community work tirelessly to transform that town. They already had a city-run pool and fitness center, in addition to a private gym. They have since expanded and remodeled, adding a splash pad. Their trail system boomed, e-bikes were added, they revived their downtown, new buildings popped up. I saw what a small town could do. If being here near family wasn’t the highest priority for me, frankly I probably would have left a few years ago. There needs to be investment in a community center for young families to interact, find their community, and provide a reason to stay. Small towns can be difficult to move to as outsiders. People that have lived here their whole life have their friend groups; their circles. Having done it, it’s difficult to find your circle in a new town and that sense of belonging. The Y would excel at this. It’s not just a gym, but would help create that community and place to interact and belong, for new people, for those new parents who feel isolated, for those students with a not-great home life or those that miss out of that sports camaraderie, for those needing a place to go after school, for the retiree looking for new purpose, for the lonely elderly person looking for connection. If you want this town to thrive, this is a need, not a want.

I want to correct a few misperceptions from a young family’s perspective:

1) Competing with other fitness centers: A lot of assumptions have been made that adding a fitness component will cause private run gyms to close. The goal of the Y is to fill the gap. I’m a working mom. I’m either at work or have a toddler at my hip. The Y provides a space for me who can’t simultaneously exercise while monitoring an active toddler at one of the current gyms. The Y, with their child watch, allows me to take my son to a safe place where he can play and interact with others while I can have 30min to myself for not only my physical but mental health. I volunteered at the FACC booth at the fair and I talked to a lot of parents, but moms especially whose eyes lit up when they learned about child watch and the fitness component, because they could work-out guilt-free. This isn’t stealing members from current facilities, this is filling the gap and finding people that aren’t members anywhere.

2) The SMEC building is the equivalent: As a parent, there is nothing about the proposed SMEC concept that I would be interested in attending. This is NOT the solution. During the 6 months of the year when the weather is cold and playing at the park isn’t an option, the SMEC proposal will not help me. The pool, gym, child watch, before and after school care is a different story.

3) No one supports the community center: I talked to a lot of people at the fair and I observed a weird phenomenon where people age 60 and older would come up and say they supported the community center like it was a secret they didn’t want their friends to know. Peer pressure doesn’t end after high-school and when they have very vocal friends who are against it, they don’t want to bring it up. I had been to the aquatic park the week of the fair for tiny tot swim, and watched at least 40 people walk through for morning aquasize. Many of which talked to me later at the fair wishing that was something they could do year-round and not just 3 months when the weather cooperates. I also talked to a lot of people ages 20-40 that were aware of a community center but were patiently waiting. They don’t read the sentinel in its entirety, and if they do skim it, they’re not reading the letters to the editor. They’re not watching city council meetings. They’re not discussing it on certain corners of social media. They catch the headline update, are confused why it’s taking so long and they continue to wait. With as many times as this has been voted for, they’re unaware anything is wrong. Meanwhile, they’re driving to Lake Crystal, Estherville, New Ulm and Mankato for amenities that should be here. They’re for it, they’re just the silent majority. Many of these were excited about the Y running it as they had worked at one during college or in another town. They had a great experience with the Y and saw the impact it had. Also a note, the “no one supports this” stance is not factoring in youth from all facets of our community that would benefit from this immensely, but who aren’t using their voice as strongly as the retired population is. The school saying that they support this and the community needs this should carry that weight. The support is there, you just need to listen.

Through my work I am keenly aware of all the things available in Fairmont. There’s a long list of parks, lakes, trails, etc to explore during the summer. But, once winter hits, those outdoor activities get put on hold. The community center fills a hole.

From observing over the last year, there’s a strong sense of “me” entitlement in the area as well. I’ve seen “not everyone would use a community center, so we should use the money on boat ramps” multiple times. The community center is open to everyone. Not using it is a choice, and if you don’t need it, great. That doesn’t mean no one needs it. Boat ramps benefit boat owners. Being told by older generations and those that were probably not the primary caregiver that families don’t need this and this isn’t a necessity is incredibly frustrating. The time to do this is now.

The Community Center project needs to keep moving. I know a lot of high schoolers and college students are watching this, and voting this down would send a strong message to your next generation to move back. This chance will probably not come again. I came back here to help my community. Please do the same.

Hayley Luther

Fairmont