YWCA closing; CEO Debbi Embry is out

The Racine YWCA, as we have known it here for 113 years, is no more.

The distinctive brick building on College Avenue, up for sale since October, will close this weekend. The gym, fitness center and pool will be empty.

The organization's CEO for the past four years, Debbi Embry, "is no longer with the Y," after a board meeting Wednesday night. (She is the daughter of legendary NBA star Wayne Embry of the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks.)

A lot is still up in the air, but a visit to the Y this afternoon found it a bustle of activity. In the gym, a mixed group of volleyballers -- four men, four women -- were enthusiastically competing against bandaged knees, their age and the occasional spike.

Volunteers hauled dozens of poinsettias to their cars, delivering them to buyers, evidence of a successful fund-raiser.

But there was an air of sadness, of uncertainty. Employees were getting a lot of hugs, and questions were everywhere, as members asked, "what about my membership?" A letter is being prepared; it will state, among other things, that the YMCA has offered a month's free membership to any YWCA member -- there are about 400 -- and will waive its usual initiation fee if they decide to join.

Members were told in October, when it was announced that the building -- designed by architect Fitzhugh Scott in 1950 after Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his design (or was rejected; stories differ) -- that the Y would try to keep the building open until the end of the year; it's falling just three weeks short. The property at 740 College Ave. is listed for sale HERE for $650,000.

There are unconfirmed reports that a local doctor toured the building on four occasions, and said he was interested in locating his office there and in keeping the pool and fitness center operating.

As recently as two weeks ago, Embry was insistent that the YWCA would be able to keep its core programs -- as opposed to physical fitness -- operating from smaller rental quarters, despite the financial difficulties besetting the program.

And, indeed, such appears to be the case. Programs like Dress for Success, and Women's Economic Empowerment Programs will continue, as will all the outreach programs for kids like Before and After School fee-based programs based at a dozen school sites, and programs at Riverbend Nature Center.

Presumably, the YWCA will take with it the large hand-lettered document listing past presidents of the YW, all the way back to the first, Mrs. Charles Erskine, 1894. Many familiar names pepper the list: Gittings, Fratt, Eastman, another Gittings, another Fratt, Parrish, Kontra. Nobody knows what wall the framed remembrance will hang on in the future, but it won't be the same.