ATLANTA – YMCA of Metro Atlanta Board Chair Charlie Yates quoted something that legendary golfer Bobby Jones once said: “No one stands so tall as when they stoop to help a child.”
Yates was speaking at a ceremony to rename the former Centennial Place YMCA in honor of Falcons Owner and CEO Arthur Blank Tuesday. The facility’s new name is the Arthur M. Blank Family Youth YMCA.
About 11 years ago, the YMCA began raising $3.8 million to build the facility on the site of what was an impoverished public housing project, YMCA CEO Ed Munster Jr. said.
The facility was part of what was then a new initiative, also conducted in the East Lake neighborhood, that included a number of community organizations, including the Atlanta Housing Authority, the YMCA and the Atlanta Public Schools, to lift those areas out of poverty.
The Blank Family Youth YMCA is linked by a breezeway to Centennial Place Elementary School and many of the programs that the 'Y' runs benefit those children.
Blank noted the YMCA is home to one of 47 Falcons Fitness Zones. The fitness zones, which are created by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, have programs that help combat childhood obesity.
When it came time for Blank and his wife, Stephanie, to take the podium, the Falcons owner was magnanimous in his comments. He suggested the building should be named instead for its staff and executive director Kaamel Nuri, whom Blank credited for being the “spiritual leader and emotional leader” of the facility.
Blank also praised David Homrich, the AMB Group’s chief financial officer and a past chairman of the board of the Atlanta YMCA, for Homrich’s nearly 25 years of volunteerism to the organization and for coordinating Blank’s efforts to donate to the YMCA.
Through a grant from the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, Blank has helped that facility go from serving 200 children a day to 3,000, Homrich said.
In his speech, Blank also talked about shared values and about the Falcons players who were present on their one day off per week during the season.
“They devote that one day [off] to events like this,” Blank said. “They’re doing whatever they can do to give back to the community.”
He also talked about the important work that the YMCA does, saying that fitness is linked to a growth in self-confidence which results in better performance both in school and socially.
“Writing checks is not a difficult thing to do,” he said. “What happens here is very, very special.”
Afterwards, a number of players, including Michael Turner, Todd McClure, Harvey Dahl and Tyson Clabo, worked with children.
McClure said the renaming of the building in honor of Blank is a sign of how much time and money Blank gives back to the community.
He explained why he gives his time to events like Tuesday’s.
“I just think it’s great, like Mr. Blank said, to give back,” McClure said. “I can remember when I was little -- I guess the closest pro team was the [Houston] Astros -- going to those games and just looking up to those players. And I understand how much it means to these kids to come out and see a professional athlete and just be able to say they’ve met them. It just means a lot to be a role model to kids in the community is huge."
