The Story of the Carls Family YMCA

Urban sprawl had not yet begun to reach the Milford area in the 1970s, yet for the 4,600 people living in the Village alone, there was a substantial demand for family recreation. A YMCA was in need.

The nearest YMCA was in Farmington Hills (the Farmington Family YMCA), which at that time operated from an old farmhouse on Grand River Avenue. The resources that were available to include Milford in the Farmington YMCA service area allowed for an extension of that Y, called the Milford YMCA.

The Milford Y’s “Y on Wheels” initiative provided quality programming to Huron Valley-area families, traveling site to site. The backyard pool program, where YMCA staff offered aquatics instruction using residential pools, was introduced through the Y on Wheels program and was an instant success as it is in many communities to this day. Also popular was the parent-child program, which brought dads and sons or daughters together for recreation, campouts, community service and relationship building; this program steadily increased in popularity, and 30 years later, is still a favorite.

While Farmington Y staff initially also served this extension, it was not long before the Milford Family YMCA secured a stationary site of its own from which to operate, within Milford Presbyterian Church on Main Street, and its very own executive director, Jerry Beers. The YMCA would later move to share space with the village offices and the jail, then to a site on Caroline Street and finally in SonRise Christian Fellowship Church on Commerce Road.

The branch was chartered in March 1992 and also expanded its service to include seniors one year later by partnering with the village to operate a senior center. The charter was made possible with the dedication of a select group of volunteers and participants from the very beginning of the YMCA’s service to the Huron Valley area, namely Lyle Tyler and Pat Dohany. It was also the tireless ambition of these individuals that, 30 years later, brought a permanent, state-of-the-art facility to the community in May 2002.