Campaign News

His comments came on the heels of Watertown resident and benefactor Barton Bentzin, who praised the couple for their tireless work in the community.

“The Bentzin family is excited to be a part of this wonderful addition to the Watertown community. We are also excited to announce the name of the new YMCA in honor of a couple who’s contributions and dedication to Watertown our unmatched,” Bentzin said. “You will not find two more passionate champions of the Watertown community honoring its past, present and future than this couple.

“From Tom’s start as a (newspaper) carrier to a 45-year career as the managing editor of the Watertown Daily Times to creating Riverfest to creating the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation and adding his voice to the new Watertown area YMCA, shows his never-ending energy to maintaining Watertown’s past while helping steer its future,” Bentzin said.

The same positive energy can be found in Mary, who taught first grade for 30-plus years at Douglas Elementary School in Watertown, he said. The couple also volunteer at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Watertown and hold an unmatched loyalty and dedication to the Watertown community, Bentzin said.

And before a packed room filled with YMCA staff, supporters and community members, Bentzin presented the new Tom and Mary Schultz Family YMCA.

“Some months ago, Jon wanted to show me the progress being made at the YMCA. He said, ‘Bring Mary. I want her to see this, too.’ So we took a little tour and then Jon takes us into the conference room and he talks for a couple of minutes and says, ‘I want to show you something on this video.’ And it was Barton and he announced to me what he was going to do,” Tom said. “Unbelievable. We’ve known and worked closely with Barton and his father, Charles, for decades and many of these things are becoming a reality in Watertown. And like a lot of you that are here tonight, Mary and I share a great love for the community. We just think the world of it. We’re deeply honored. I can’t say more than that. From the bottom of our hearts — thanks to you Barton and your wife, Laura, your foundations and the entire YMCA team for making the Y’s vision a reality.

“At the start, I thought I thought this is going to be a big mountain, but not in Watertown,” Schultz said. “There’s no big hill for climbers.”

Watertown’s sense of humility, catalysts within the community

Before the name of the new YMCA was announced Tuesday, Glacial Community YMCA Chief Executive Officer Jon Lange said he learned Watertown has a sense of humility where recognition takes a backseat to getting the job done.

He experienced it when he spoke with the Ehlinger family on naming the new express YMCA at The Collective after Dr. Bill Ehlinger, who had a vision of bringing the community together to focus on their health and well-being.

Lange experienced the sense of humility again when he met with the David family and spoke to them about a future facility near The Collective on Fairview Drive with the announcement of the new free weight area as the “John David Free Weight Center,” in honor of John David’s enduring legacy. This naming opportunity stemmed from a donation to the Y’s Capital Campaign from Maas Brothers Construction, who felt compelled to pass along their naming rights in honor of a deserving Watertown community leader.

“We think it’s important to invest in community assets like the YMCA to help improve the lives of our employees, customers, and the city as a whole,” Maas Brothers Construction President Anthony Maas said. “John David dedicated an incredible amount of his time to helping maintain and improve his hometown. He not only served as the mayor and an alderman for several years, but also contributed greatly on numerous boards, in various volunteer capacities, and as a small business owner.”

Lange said the new YMCA would not be possible without a “few catalysts” within the Watertown community.

One of the first catalysts of the YMCA vision is David Schroeder, who is the Capital Campaign Chairperson for the new YMCA.

“He was one of the original board members who began banging the drum,” Lange said. “I started calling him the Energizer Bunny because he just keeps going and going.”

The next catalyst, who Lange highlighted, is director Kay Nord, who just retired last March.

“Kay took this idea that was 200-300 members and turned it into a YMCA with 3,000 members,” the YMCA chief executive officer said. “So she took this vision and made it a reality.”

Lange would’ve been remiss if he didn’t mention Tina Crave, Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation president and CEO, who is stepping away from the position.

“Tina had the forethought to look at the issues upstream and bring the YMCA, Watertown Regional Medical Center together with the GWCHF and look for ways to deal with the social issues within Watertown,” Lange said. “It was Tina, who believed all of the entities needed to come together or positive change was not going to happen with our community.”

Reaching the funding goal

“I don’t think any of us thought we were going to raise $25 million, but we did know that this was the vision we wanted to put in front of the people in Watertown,” Lange said. “One of the things that happened was Barton Bentzin called and made a gift, and, all of a sudden in the summer of 2023, we stopped talking about ‘When are we going to build a YMCA?’ And started talking about, ‘How much of this YMCA are we going to build?’”

Lange said in Phase I of the campaign there was a goal set at $17.8 million with the public phase of the campaign launched with $1.7 million.

“We blew the doors off that and we we almost raised $2 million in the public phase and in Phase I we’ve nearly reached $18 million,” Lange said. “We have an additional $1.6 million available for the pool. This gives us assurance to construct Phase 1 and we’re waiting on the state grant to build the pool.”