YMCA returning to Morristown after 31-year absence; preschool at St. Peter’s is first step

Last year, the regional YMCA put “Morristown” back in its name.

Now the Y is putting itself back into Morristown.

The Greater Morristown YMCA of Cedar Knolls has leased space at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on South Street, an event that signals two important comebacks:

• The return of the Collinsville Child Care Center, a preschool that left the church campus in 2010 after 38 years. Last fall the Y assumed management of the struggling operation, which had moved to a facility on Route 10 in Whippany.
• This fall, the Y plans to offer a range of community programs in Morristown for the first time since it left town in 1981. Zumba, pilates, yoga, music, lectures–all are envisioned in what marks a homecoming for an organization with downtown roots stretching to 1874.

“This was a tremendous opportunity for us. We had been looking for years for a space like this,” said Carol Armour, president and CEO of the Greater Morristown YMCA.

“In years to come, the sky’s the limit in terms of what people can make happen here,” said the Rev. Janet Broderick, rector of St. Peter’s, who hopes the church campus becomes a cultural center akin to New York’s 92nd Street Y.

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Janet believers the partnership will help St. Peter’s better serve the town, a mission she outlined when she arrived three years ago.

“There is a population here that wants to have community,” the priest said. “They want to have valuable, meaningful experiences, and they want to be healthy.”

“And they want to help other people,” added Carol, during a visit to the Collinsville preschool in the church annex.

This month 38 preschoolers between the ages of 3 and 5 began attending daylong sessions there. Collinsville may accommodate up to 90 youngsters–applications are being accepted–after the Y renovates the church basement, known as the undercroft.  The target date is September; state and local approvals must be obtained before the renovations can begin.

When the preschool moves into the undercroft, Carol said, it will free up annex space for community activities by the Y.

Eventually, the Y also hopes to launch an after-school program for Morristown students. The Morristown Neighborhood House has been scrambling to keep alive its STARS after-school offerings at the Frelinghuysen Middle School since state cutbacks closed its major sponsor, New Jersey After 3.

Other preschools serving the area include Children on the Green at the Morristown United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church Nursery School in Morristown and the Joyful Noise Nursery School of the Presbyterian Church of Morris Plains, and the Temple B’nai Or Preschool and the Morris School District’s Lafayette Learning Center Preschool, both  in Morristown.

Fundraising by the Y enables it to offer scholarships to needy families who cannot afford the YMCA’s  $180 weekly preschool fee, Carol said. The Y also is ready to accept children under 3 who are not fully toilet-trained, she said.

Morristown YMCA History

• Born in 1874 at Baptist Church, on corner of Park Place and Speedwell Avenue.
• Founders seek place for men to “do great things through concentrated actions instead of be lured by evil.”
• Night school teaches men reading, writing and arithmetic.
• Locations move from rented walkup at the Woods Estate on Park Place to 13 South St. (1888) to corner of Washington Street and Western Avenue (1913).
• Early gym considered a marvel, boasting electricity, showers with hot water and bowling alley.
• Women are granted part-time membership during World War I.
• In 1981 the Y moves to 79 Horsehill Road in Cedar Knolls; 13 acre-campus and 48,000-square-feet of space include Olympic pool and Richard Blake Child Care Center.
• 2011: “Morris Center YMCA” becomes “Greater Morristown YMCA.”
• 2012: Y re-establishes Morristown presence, at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

Carol said the United Way approached the Y last year about helping Collinsville, which had parted ways with St. Peter’s and moved into beautiful classrooms on the campus of the United Jewish Communities of Metrowest. The Route 10 location posed transportation challenges for disadvantaged Morristown families, she said.

“From my perspective, this is the only place they should be,” Carol said, referring to St. Peter’s.

Collinsville is one of five child care programs managed by the Greater Morristown YMCA.  The list includes a local program of the Atlantic Health System, parent of Morristown Medical Center.

Nationally, the YMCA is the largest provider of child care, Carol said, noting that the local chapter is certified by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, an organization that sets professional standards. Only 7 percent of child care providers are accredited by the NAEYC, she said.

“We’re bringing an enormous amount of expertise to this little child care center,” Carol said of Collinsville. The Y management team includes Ashley Kindberg, executive director of childcare, and Assistant Director Laura Guzik.

Collinsville kids also have the benefit of some familiar faces. Collinsville instructors Bea Yuan, Charles Johnson, Dorothy Lewis and Bill Stern have brought continuity to the transition.

“It’s good to be back in town,” Bea said this week. “It’s good for the kids to see their neighbors and their town.”