New playhouse donated to Santa Maria Valley YMCA by local philanthropists
Dave Alley
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The Santa Maria Valley YMCA has a new playhouse for its preschool programs thanks to a generous donation made by two well known local philanthropists.
Mike and Marla Gibson, who have been involved in numerous Santa Maria Valley non-profit organizations, charities and events for many years, recently won the playhouse during a fundraiser for CALM, a community-based mental health agency serving Santa Barbara County.
“The high school students over at the vocational training center (The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District Mark Richardson Career Technical Education Center) built this playhouse house for a construction competition,” said Mike Gibson. “After it was done, they donated to CALM. CALM had a fundraiser a few weeks ago and they auctioned it off. I was lucky enough to be the high bidder. And I donated it to the Y because I knew that the preschool could use the playhouse.”
On Friday, the Santa Maria YMCA, the Gibsons, along with other local stakeholders held a ribbon cutting to officially open up the playhouse for the kids.
“It’s great all these kids are going to get so much enjoyment out of playing in that playhouse,” said Gibson. “They can play house inside and there’s a little stove and all kinds of fun stuff for them to do in there.”
The playhouse needed to be carefully hoisted over the YMCA building into an outdoor play area.
Now that it’s in place and open to the kids, the YMCA has big plans for its future usage.
“It’s just a huge enhancement to our outdoor classroom,” said Diana Borjas, Santa Maria V Preschool and Aquatic Director. “We haven’t had a preschool playhouse here to this caliber ever. We just have such a vision for it. For each season, we’re going to bring it to life. We’re going to be able to use it for their imagination and dramatic play, making it into a library, making it into a bakery, letting their imagination go wild. Each season we can cater to that season fall, spring, winter, having Santa’s workshop out here, trick or treating around the Halloween season. We just can’t wait to bring it to life and make the children just enjoy our outdoor space even more.”