MARQUETTE, MI-- It’s like a dark cloud has lifted.
That’s what YMCA of Marquette County CEO Jenna Zdunek says, following a million-dollar donation from David and Thu Brule of Marquette. The money will eliminate the Y’s long-standing debt.
Zdunek says in March of 2016 the Y was $7 million in debt due to decisions made by past leadership. Staff layoffs, program eliminations, the sale of the off-site child care center and other efforts got the debt down to $5.4 million. Several of the founding board members from 25 years ago also came back to help guide the organization back to solvency, but the Y had to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May of 2017.
Zdunek says the Y went through reorganization for 14 months, working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, private entities and Range Bank. It was able to exit bankruptcy in July of 2018, but the organization still carried more than a million dollars of debt.
“We definitely beat the odds, thank goodness, of coming out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which, usually nonprofits—there’s about three percent that can do that,” she says.
Zdunek says Y officials have been meeting with the Brules for almost a year.
“They definitely did their research and made sure they could trust us, as well as trust where the YMCA was going, our vision, our leadership. And so we’re so unbelievably thankful to them,” she says.
If the Y repays the USDA $700,000 over the next ten years the remaining debt will be forgiven.
The building will become the David and Thu Brule YMCA of Marquette County.
