Leaving the lights on at Fall River YMCA

FALL RIVER — It’s not a poltergeist that’s been bathing the face of the YMCA building with colored lighting during the past year and a half.

The dramatic, nighttime light show of alternating colors and hues began in late 2018 as a means of promoting the newly improved Fall River YMCA at 199 North Main St., according to its executive director Stephanie Mancini.

The now 117-year-old YMCA from 2013 to 2014 underwent a $10 million interior renovation that resulted in the creation of a two-story exercise wellness center and a child care facility.

Mancini says the goal of enrolling at least 2,000 members was discussed at a capital fundraising committee meeting as far back as 2015.

When she took over as director in late 2017, Mancini said, membership enrollment stood at 1,450.

She says a member of the board of directors that year suggested the building’s exterior be illuminated with colored lights to publicize the fact that the YMCA had undergone major changes.

“He said he wanted to be able to see it as you’re driving over the Braga Bridge,” Mancini said, adding that the idea “just stuck in my head.”

The board eventually voted in favor of the proposal and hired the same New York state company that had installed all the interior LED lights that were part of the interior improvement project.

“It was to draw attention to the building,” said Ray Prevost, facilities manager for the Fall River, Swansea and Dartmouth YMCAs, all of which are a part of the YMCA Southcoast group.

Prevost says that unlike the more traditional spotlights used at Fall River City Hall and Charlton Memorial Hospital, the YMCA utilizes a “wall washing” LED system that evenly distributes the colored illumination over the four-story building’s facade.

“No one has them like this,” he said.

The wall washing lights seemed to have made a difference.

Mancini says that by 2019 “unit” enrollment had hit the 2,000 mark. Since then enrollment of individuals and families at the Y, she said, has risen to around 3,000.

Mancini says the price tag for Big Shine Energy of Newburgh, New York to provide and install the lights was approximately $20,000.

She said before the lights could be installed the YMCA had to get both state and local historical commission approval.

Prevost and Mancini said the city’s historical commission rejected the initial proposal, because the series of two-foot-long LED lights would be visible to the naked eye.

Prevost said the problem was resolved when the lighting company said it could insert the lights into the ledges of the face of the Neo-Classical style building in such a way that they can’t be seen from the street.

The only thing lost in that version, he said, was the ability to illuminate the recessed, arched, street-level front entry.

Prevost says that either he or a member of the maintenance staff uses a handheld remote control on each of the two floors to activate the lights and select the color schemes, which include hues ranging from yellow to violet.

Mancini said for the past month half the building has been bathed in red and the other half in blue in the spirit of Fourth of July Independence Day.

She said from her perspective the stunning image of the building being lit up in colors is more than just a promotional gimmick.

“It’s a beacon of hope,” Mancini said. “People do come here to work out and for child care, but they also come here looking for hope in their lives.”

Mancini says the Y’s Livestrong cancer-survivor program and other services that help former drug addicts and homeless people continue to make a difference in people’s lives.

She says some former drug users who have taken advantage of YMCA services — after having undergone substance-abuse treatment and counseling — have become volunteers or in some cases employees.

Mancini says one woman diagnosed with cancer who joined the Livestrong program told her how important it had been to her.

“She said, ‘This place has saved my life,’” Mancini said.