The Landing takes off

Once upon a time, the YMCA was established as the Young Men’s Christian Association. Over the decades, the worldwide organization has re-branded as “The Y” to broaden its membership and offerings to those of other faiths, genders and ages. Contrary to the organization’s original branding, Wausau’s local Woodson YMCA has an extremely active senior community, so much so that it developed The Landing, a senior center that offers exercise classes, educational programs, social activities and a place to get to know new people.

The Landing was first established in 2019. Prior to that, the Wausau area had no dedicated senior center, according to Landing executive director Julie Streufert.

“The Landing was established with just 6,000 square feet downstairs,” she said.

The Landing quickly gathered more than 1,000 memberships in its first year. Despite the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Landing continued to grow, and now, six years later, membership sits at nearly 6,000.

“We quickly kind of outgrowing that space, programs were getting larger than we had the space to accommodate ... we were busting at the seams,” Streufert said. “So between the Y and a private donor, we were able then to do our expansion to meet the needs of the community.”

The new, expanded Landing opened in January, with a dedicated games space for billiards and table tennis, freeing up space for card playing and other social activities. A full kitchen was added, as well as a new, separate entryway for The Landing.

“People love the new entryway coming right in,” Streufert said. “I think people are really appreciating now that the Landing is mostly all held within our walls here, they don’t have to travel into the Y to play their card game anymore. Our meals to go during the month of January grew exponentially, we’re averaging about 80 to 90 meals every week. And I think a big part of that is that new kitchen.”

Along with the new entryway on Fourth Street, the Y has also secured more than 30 additional parking spaces to make entry more accessible for seniors.

“Seniors really have a great place to park and they come right in which we’ve struggled with in the past. They used to come right in our main entrance and come all the way down the hall,” Streufert said. “Now this is designated for them.”

With the kitchen expansion, lunches are served every Wednesday, along with soup-to-go and homemade bread throughout the winter months. Regular cooking classes are held at the Landing, too.

On the second floor, there is a wellness center specifically designed to cater to individuals age 55 and over. This area allows seniors to make use of treadmills, elliptical, bike and weight machines while avoiding the hustle and bustle of the YMCA’s larger wellness center.

The Landing also expanded to the YMCA’s third floor with additional space for gatherings of all kinds. Upstairs, there are now two program rooms, the smaller of which is larger than the Landing’s previous total program space. In these rooms the Landing hosts educational programming, provided in partnership with local experts, on a wide variety of subjects like local history and architecture, financial planning, gardening and travel.

“We’ve grown substantially in the amount of space where we can hold programs,” Streufert said. “We can hold larger programs with more people. We have a lot of versatility downstairs. It used to be the noise level was so hard because everything was happening right there. Now being up on the background we can do a whole lot more with our programs and we can have two programs now versus what we used to be able to do one at a time.”

These programs aren’t limited to the Landing’s walls, though, as there are many programs that take place within a two hour radius of Wausau. Additional travel, including trips to Brewers games, the Fireside Dinner Theatre in Janesville and even international travel, are all organized at the Landing, too.

Of course, as part of the YMCA, the Landing features fitness classes catered to seniors as well -- some of which are evidence-based programs that target certain aging issues or develop important skills. Amber Pender, assistant director of operations at the Landing, is currently training to lead a Rock Steady Boxing course, which is a non-contact fitness classed that uses boxing drills to improve the lives of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The curriculum was developed with research from the University of Indianapolis, Pender said.

“There’s that boxing mentality of knowing you’re in for a long haul of a fight, and that’s what it is for people with Parkinson’s, too,” Pender said. “Another program that I’ve been working on is Brain Savers. That’s an evidence-based program for people with Alzheimer’s, it combines education with exercise and some like brain workout activities that can help stimulate the brain.”

Overall, Streufert said it’s not uncommon for the Landing to offer 90 unique programs in a month.

Looking ahead, the Landing leadership is prepared to continue to grow programming and evaluate the best way to allocate unused space they are saving for future development.

“In Marathon County, our growth as far as the aging population, those 55 and older, is only going to grow over the next decade,” Streufert said. “In the next two, three years we’re going to be able to kind of assess what is it that we’re going to need.”

In the meantime, the results speak for themselves. While the Landing has grown five-fold in as many years, it's more difficult to measure the individual impact the center has on its members. But that impact is witnessed by those who work and visit the center, every day. Sometimes, Streufert said, it’s life changing.

“Many people at this stage in life have either lost a significant other, or their social network is getting smaller, and they’re losing their sense of purpose,” she said. “I think all of what we try to do here is to fill some of those gaps and voids. We’ve got one gentleman who lives alone. The community here just embraced him, encouraging him to go and seek medical help when he needed. Had we not been here the outcome probably wouldn’t have been so positive. For some of the introverts, it may not be sitting down and having that cup of coffee, but I can guarantee there can be a program of some kind that’s going to interest them. I think there’s power in just being around people -- you’re still a part of that energy.”

In addition to the social benefits, there is also the physical impact. The Landing has helped seniors maintain their independence by improving their mobility and even growing their strength.

“They can carry their groceries in. They can get up out of their chair. They’re then able to stay home longer,” Streufert said. “They’re finding purpose again by volunteering, or just even coming in and playing cards. In that case they’re sitting, but they’re also chatting and laughing.”

With its community of more 5,791 members, Streufert said she can’t imagine the state of Wausau’s 55-plus population  without it.

“It definitely touches people from all different levels, she said. “We’ve got some people that, you know, they might come at 5 a.m. and work out at the Y and they stay to have coffee with us at 8. We have single travelers that would never go on their own anymore and now can get on that plane and go together and experience that together.”

Landing memberships start at $20 a month and can be rolled into a full YMCA membership for a total of $52 a month. Streufert said the Landing collaborates with some Medicare plans to cover membership costs, as well as other options.

“We are here for everyone. And if somebody can’t afford that membership base, we have ways to work with individuals,” she said.

The Landing is located at 707 Third Street, Wausau. For more information, visit www.thelandingwausau.com.