ONALASKA, Wis (WXOW) – The Onalaska YMCA announced a new construction project partnered with Gundersen Health System.
The new expansion will provide a warm therapy pool and a physical therapy space which will be built on the south side of the Houser Family YMCA facility.
The YMCA sharing resources with Gundersen is not a new concept for the community. According to President of the YMCA Board of Directors, Jackie Kuehlmann, it isn’t.
“The partnership with Gundersen really started with the Healthy Living Center down at the La Crosse ‘Y’…the Dahl ‘Y’…and it was really about how we could collaborate together to spread healthy lifestyles in the community.”
YMCA Board of Directors President Jackie Kuehlmann said
This project was supposed to begin last summer but the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to their plans and they had to turn the focus to new challenges…
“Frankly, we were in survival mode trying to provide essential services to the community…childcare and mental health support and so on…so we just needed to pump the brakes on the project and put it on hold for a year…and we’re really glad to be back now…our members are coming back…we’re recovering…and we’re excited to this project underway again.”
Bill Soper, CEO of the YMCA
In addition to aquatic therapy in the shared warm therapy pool, Gundersen’s physical therapy space will provide outpatient, orthopedic, and sports physical therapy. Also, the new Gundersen-operated facility will include individual and group programming.
The community health partners stated the expansion will be convenient for Gundersen patients and YMCA members across the Coulee Region.