HASTINGS, Neb. — Leaders at the Hastings YMCA are making one final push to finish fundraising for their expansion and renovation project.

The Y has raised over $20 million for the project, but needs $950,000 more to ensure it doesn’t incur any long-term debt.

“We’re just kind of back out in the community asking people to either kick in some more or finding some new people that maybe didn’t get a chance to donate,” Stickels said.

CEO Troy Stickels says the original goal was $14 million when fundraising started in March 2020. Ballooning materials costs and interests rates have driven costs up despite efforts to trim back plans.

“We got to the point where we felt like we cut everything out that we could without jeopardizing programming that we could offer to the community,” Stickels said.

Stickels says the expansion to a 90,000 square foot facility wouldn’t be possible without the community’s support.

“To have the community just locally kick in almost $10 million, I think says a lot for the generosity of our community but also the impact the YMCA has had on people,” Stickels said.

The expansion will allow the Y to move out of its 18th street facility and put all of its services in one spot. The renovation is taking the existing building down to its bones and completely remodeling it.

Leaders celebrated the final beam of the expansion going into place with a ceremony last week. Stickels hopes to build on that momentum in the final fundraising push.

“We’ve done something here that nobody’s ever done before and nobody probably thought we could do. It’s been pretty humbling,” Stickels said.

Construction is about 40% complete remains on schedule. The Y hopes to open the pool in September and open the whole facility next May.