LaShawn Brooks had thirty-six years in with the City of Gary and was getting ready to retire. Instead, she took the biggest job in the neighborhood she was born in.
The Gary Tolleston YMCA opened on September 28 with Brooks, 56, as its executive director. The building cost fifty million dollars and runs to ninety one thousand square feet: three basketball courts, an upstairs indoor track, two pools and a whirlpool, classrooms, a wellness center, a child development center, a teaching kitchen, community gathering space and a cafe run locally. More than eight hundred residents have joined.
Her thirty-six years with the city covered events, the Marquette Park Pavilion and the constituent services office. The ground is the same ground. “This very area is where I was born and raised,” she said.
What she gave as her reason was not the title. “I love working with people, love helping and making a difference in the community,” she said. Then came the part that explains taking on something new at the end of a career rather than the start of one. “I love my city,” she said. “I believe in its comeback, and I just wanted to be a part of it.”
Rebecca Cheek, the chief people experience officer at Crossroads YMCA, said Brooks brings a rare combination of strong business acumen, people leadership and genuine heart.
Brooks put it in four words. “This is so worth it,” she said.
