After Meth Cleanup YMCA’s Learning Center Will Open August 13

The Missoula Family YMCA’s Learning Center cleanup and remodel is almost complete, and is planning for an August 13 grand reopening.

Executive Director Heather Foster said many lessons were learned from the incident that brought about a necessary transformation of the off-site childcare facility on Palmer Street.

“April 10^th was the date that we’ll always remember,” said Foster. “We had an employee that was arrested and found to have been smoking methamphetamine in one of our lower cabinets in our laundry room. So, that sort of threw us down a rabbit hole and it was something that we weren’t quite prepared for, but we’ve learned a lot through this process.”

Foster said the Learning Center’s many families and the community at large has offered to help get the facility up and running again.

“We just keep getting phone calls from businesses and families and some of our members asking how they can help us get back into the Learning Center, so we’ve created a registry, and it’s up on our website so people can go and see if they’re interested in purchasing anything from color crayons to paints and there’s a couple of art supplies and science kits, so everybody can see what’s actually going back into the center.”

Foster said the opening on August 13 will include an open house for the public.