- December 20, 2024
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The West Orange Chamber of Commerce helped the Roper YMCA Family Center celebrate a milestone.
Fred Tyler, who won a gold medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics for 800-meter freestyle relays, coached swimmers on the YMCA’s swim team in 1979. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
Winter Garden Police Officer Jon “J.J.” Johnson coached the 76ers YMCA youth basketball team in 1979. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
The Polliwogs performed warmup exercises during swim lessons offered in 1979 in the new pool of the West Orange YMCA. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
Instructor Martha Teal taught swim lessons through the West Orange YMCA in 1979 at the branch’s new location on the corner of Marshall Farms and Windermere roads. The new facility had a competition-size swimming pool with diving well, dressing rooms, a multi-purpose room, storage space and offices. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
The West Orange YMCA hired Melissa Craft, center, as the aquatics director and swim team coach when the new competition pool was constructed in 1979. With her are YMCA director Dave Snyder, right, and Fred Cruciger, the president of the parents committee to establish a swim team in West Orange. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
Parent/child swim lessons were provided by the West Orange YMCA at the Holiday Inn pool prior to the Y pool’s construction in 1979. Lessons took place at several locations, including the Colony Plaza hotel in Ocoee. Photo courtesy of the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation.
Before the Roper YMCA Family Center was so named, it was known as the West Orange YMCA. But what few people might know is that it was called something else before that.
It was 45 years ago that the Central Florida YMCA held a dedication ceremony and open house of its new West Orange Branch in Winter Garden. The facility would be called the E.M. Tanner Memorial YMCA, and cutting the ribbon during the dedication program were Tanner’s wife, Mary V. Tanner; John C. Jowett, M.D.; Barbara Roper; and Dick Fischer.
The program for the Sept. 23, 1979, ceremony was filled with other notable men and women of West Orange County, including Y board chairman Larry Cappleman; Barbara Roper, president-elect of the Central Florida YMCA; the Rev. Roger B. Seidner of Windermere Union Church; swim coach Fred Tyler; and the West Orange branch’s board of management, consisting of Ward P. Britt Jr., Jim Buttram, Cappleman, Ann Crooks, Fred Cruciger, Norman Dault, Fred Davis, Dan Dummett, Steve Girvin, Denise Hall, Hank Sines, Joe Stinnett, John Terrell Jr., Ben Hargrove, Jim Hayes, Ron Henson, Bob Koelble, James O’Neal Jr., Alice Orie, Tom Ritten, Roper, Seidner, Gary Thornton, Maxine Walls and Milton West.
Today, the Y branch continues to provide health and wellness space for the community.
“The Roper Y is a place where people come together to support one another and grow stronger,” said Justin Higa, executive director of the Roper YMCA Family Center. “Celebrating 45 years is a testament to the dedication of our staff, volunteers, donors and members who make this possible every day, and we look forward to continuing to serve our community with passion and purpose for many years to come.”
A GATHERING PLACE
The Roper Y is situated on Windermere Road south of Florida’s Turnpike, but that was not the original intended location.
The YMCA actually became a branch of the Central Florida YMCA in 1972, according to a history provided by the Y. For seven years, it operated as a non-facility branch, running programs at the local KOA Campground, Story Point on Lake Butler, Drew High School on East Story Road and Tanner Auditorium (now Tanner Hall) on Lake Apopka, as well as in Orange County facilities. Swim lessons were offered at motel swimming pools, including the Holiday Inn and Ramada Inn (which, later was renamed the Colony Plaza hotel).
The YMCA offices were housed in rooms donated by the Ramada Inn.
In 1977, the YMCA moved into a house on approximately five acres of land donated by Mary V. Tanner in memory of her husband, E.M. Tanner. The YMCA had intended to build on this property, which was located north of the turnpike, but neighbors objected because of the threat of traffic.
Through a private negotiation between a land owner and board member Bert Roper, a deal was struck to acquire the present property at the corner of Marshall Farms and Windermere roads.
The William Norvelle Denmark family bought the five acres from the Y. The Y then agreed to buy 10 acres of a 21.672-acre grove on the south side of the turnpike owned by Lou Jacobs, an Orlando citrus man. An agreement was reached with Bert and Barbara Roper purchasing the remaining 11.672 acres and paying for it over the next 10 years.
The West Orange YMCA branch's request to the Central Florida Capital Funds Committee was approved. The group committed $75,000 to the project, and the YMCA set a goal of $100,000 to build a multipurpose room, offices, locker rooms and a swimming pool.
By the following year, the branch had raised $114,746 and construction began. In July 1979, the pool opened; the rest of the facility opened a month later. Some of the earliest branch directors were Hargrove, Jack West, Jim Brewer and Bill Kilday.
The Fitnasium was added in 1992, and Mary V. Tanner gave an initial $50,000 to kick off the campaign. Dr. Phillips Foundation contributed, but when the funds were deemed insufficient, Tanner gave an additional $50,000 and the building was designated the E.V. Tanner Memorial YMCA.
In spring 1993, the Ropers sold more than 11 acres to Orange County as part of the 55-acre park, which now has soccer fields, a dog park and other activities. The proceeds of the sale were put into the Bert E. Roper Charitable Remainder Unitrust formed in August 1991 that noted the YMCA as the designated remainder organization.
The Unitrust trustees, Rebecca Ann Roper Stafford, Bert Edward Roper Jr., Preston Reid Roper and Charles Franklin Roper, received a deed to the 11 acres four months later. The Unitrust was then liquidated and the proceeds were part of the major gift for new construction in 2004. The new facility contained 28,000 square feet, nearly tripling the size, with a full-size gymnasium with scoreboard and bleachers, new adult locker rooms with dry saunas, and a new front entrance.
For this, the West Orange Y was renamed the Roper YMCA Family Center.
More renovations and an expansion were made in 2015, and the Y opened a new Healthy Living Zone Health Performance Center and Healthy Living addition.
In 2019, Barbara Roper was inducted into the National YMCA Hall of Fame for her lifelong dedication and contributions to the nonprofit. Her work with the organization began in the 1960s, when she was researching camps for her children and discovered Camp Wewa, in Apopka, which was operated by the YMCA of Central Florida. It captured her heart, and she knew it was a place in which she wanted to get involved.
Roper was the first female board chair of the YMCA of Central Florida and the first female board chair of the YMCA of the USA.
“Over the past four and a half decades, the Roper YMCA Family Center has grown alongside our rapidly expanding community to serve as a trusted home of health and wellness for thousands of neighbors of all ages,” said Kevin Bolding, YMCA of Central Florida’s president and CEO. “We are excited to continue building on this legacy of impact by creating even more opportunities for our neighbors to grow stronger together in spirit, mind and body.”
