Maggie Angst

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The original South Shore YMCA will reopen to the public Saturday as a fitness and community center under the name Youth in Motion.

Local residents who founded and operate the nonprofit organization worked tirelessly to get the community center up and running again, according to Paul Ece, YIM South Shore board president.

"It really was a group effort," Ece said. "All the local community members came together and put in a big effort here to try and save this facility for the South Shore people."

Ece, who was a member of the South Shore YMCA for many years, said the community was lacking a place where families and children could come together after the YMCA closed.

"The goal is to bring families back to the Y again and create an atmosphere where they can exercise, take education classes and improve their health," Ece said.

According to Ece, YIM's programs and management will be nearly identical to the YMCA.

Many of the interior facilities have been remodeled and updated, and the center will open with its aquatics center, fitness center, gymnasium and education center fully operational, as well as its outdoor facilities and newly renovated lobby and group exercise rooms.

The center will also offer music and dance classes, as well as ACT and other educational courses.

After the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2014, the South Shore YMCA closed its doors at the end of January 2015, a casualty of its parent organization's bankruptcy.

In April, a nonprofit ethnic group, The Federation of Balkan American Associations Inc., bought the property to create a youth center for the local Balkan community.

According to Saif Tarawneh, executive director of the YIM South Shore Center, the federation realized the space was too big for just the Balkan community, which includes people whose ethnic roots are in Kosovo, Bosnia and other Balkan countries.

So the federation decided to work with community members to create a center for the South Shore.

"We're trying to open up and bring back something that meant a lot to the community," Tarawneh said. "It started as a community center for the Balkan community, but it's grown into something much more beautiful."

YIM is preregistering members this week. People who sign up before November will have the $50 registration fee waived, and members who prepay for one year will receive one month free.

The grand-opening ceremony on YIM will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday at the YIM facility, 3244 E. College Ave., Cudahy. The mayors of Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Saint Francis and Oak Creek will be in attendance to commemorate the event.