A glass-and-brick residential tower in downtown Evanston. Photo: Eric Fredericks from Rancho Cordova, CA, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
The City of Evanston scheduled a second roundtable for local health and wellness businesses on Friday, June 28, 2013, at the McGaw YMCA, 1000 Grove St. The session followed a first meeting in April and was meant to pick up the topics and ideas that participants raised then.
The invitation went to Evanston business owners and employees whose establishments serve residents’ health and wellness needs. That is a broad group in a city with hospitals, clinics, fitness studios and independent practitioners, and a roundtable lets the city hear from them together rather than one sector at a time.
Parking for the event was available in the YMCA’s south lot, at Maple Avenue and Lake Street. Attendees displayed a pass in the windshield that was issued when they registered.
The venue
The McGaw YMCA is one of the city’s older institutions. According to the organization’s history, the Evanston YMCA was founded Nov. 17, 1885, and first met at Jennings Hall on Davis Street. It moved into the building at 1000 Grove St. in 1930, when it was known as the Grove Street Branch. The Y desegregated its facilities in the 1960s, and in 1984 it took the McGaw name after a major gift from the family of Foster G. McGaw. It also operates McGaw YMCA Camp Echo, a summer camp founded in 1924.
Holding a wellness gathering there made practical sense. The building sits close to downtown, it is itself a fitness and youth-program operator, and it houses a men’s residence.
The Y’s own record includes a chapter that Evanston residents will recognize. Its Emerson Street Branch served as a hub for Black Evanstonians until 1967, when the national YMCA ended segregated branches, and the organization has since moved to honor that branch’s legacy at the Grove Street building. More recently, the Y announced plans to renovate and modernize its men’s residence in the historic building.
The city did not publish an agenda beyond the follow-up to April’s discussion, and no outcomes were announced with the invitation. Registration was handled online ahead of the session, which is how attendees received their parking passes.
Background on the YMCA is drawn from the McGaw YMCA’s published history.
Daniel Okafor covers business, startups and the Innovators section for The Evanston Edge.
