Ken Shannon NORTHWEST Branch - Greater Wichita YMCA — Local services in Wichita

This YMCA needs to evaluate how “family friendly” they are. Their kid zone stops taking kids over 7, so obviously that means your kid has to tag along with you for your workout. I dropped my younger kids off and brought my 8 year old upstairs with me, barely made it to the top of the stairs without staff asking me to remove my headphones just to tell me that my daughter couldn’t be up there. Once I told them she was 8, they told me to keep her within arms reach and I went on my merry way (She is small for her age). I went to the free weights section so that we could be more out of the way of the treadmills/machines/etc. MIND YOU it is Sunday at 1pm so there was plenty of open space and not busy by any means. Not 10 mins into my workout the same worker came and told me that my daughter needed to stay away from the equipment because she could get hurt. I get it’s a safety thing but if that’s the case then why does the kid zone cutoff at 7 years old??? You can’t have it both ways. I’ve been a patron of the Y for over 10 years and thinking about cancelling our membership. We pay too much for a family membership with kid zone access, to be treated this way and still not be able to access the resources. Genesis goes up to age 12 and most YMCAs throughout the US have an age cutoff way higher than 8. Very...

Both the dry and wet sauna are ONLY around 90 degrees. The average sauna any where else on the low end is 150degrees. 90 degrees is not high enough to receive any health benefits and in the summer is colder than outside. This facility seems more geared toward children than fitness. Sauna gives massive benefits to weight training and studies have shown that sauna reduces all cause mortality (death from all causes) by 40% if used at 170degrees for 20minutes 4 days per week. Sauna is also a great weigh for older people to get great cardiovascular exercise without strenuous activity! Since the sauna is under temp it is a perfect environment for bacteria and will probably be full of people. People use it far longer when it is under temp and it becomes crowded. Most people are not sweating much in here though. This is a simple fix. Increasing the temperature will make your sauna cleaner and safer and actually a benefit to your members. This is not the case...

Everyone on the staff is friendly and helpful. When I first came to the Y, I had recovered from a broken arm. (I had been hit by a car.) Coming to the Y, going to Warriors for Wellness, working with Ann both in class and for a while doing personal training, I have gained energy. If I sit with a book after shopping, it's because I want to read, not because I don't have energy to do something else. When I first started working on the treadmill, I had to hold both sides to keep my balance. Now, I can hold the crane pose for 30 seconds on each leg! (At home where I'm not tempted to laugh. We have so much fun in class!) At 78-years-old, I feel better than ever! Thank you, Ann. Thank you YMCA. A big shout-out to Jandee for keeping class going while Ann you were recovering from surgery. Thank you...