PRINCE EDWARD – Southside Virginia Family YMCA will be looking for another CEO. Current CEO Dan Albert has accepted a similar post for the Greater Scranton Area YMCA in Pennsylvania. His last day at the local Y is January 13.

“…We're obviously … very sorry that we're losing Dan,” Y Board Chairman Parker Terry told The Herald. “And he's certainly done a lot to help this Y grow tremendously.”

Terry said that they would start a search process as far as trying to secure a replacement.

“…We'll work through Y National-we have a representative…in Richmond that we'll be working with and we'll start the process,” Terry said.

Terry also went on to offer, “…You know, I can't really say enough good things about what Dan has helped us to accomplish here in his six year term, I guess it's been. We've gone from being a small downtown Y to a 6,000-member facility with just too many programs to even start to list.”

And most of them, he adds, are not fee-based programs; most are free to the membership.

Terry also highlighted the growth in membership, that they have “like over 800 or so people…going through the building a day out there, that there is really a good number of programs and really great participation in the programs “and he's been responsible for a lot of that.”

Albert, who previously worked for a Y in Pennsylvania prior to coming here, arrived in May of 2004 when the Y was still in the former rescue squad building on Farmville's Third Street.

“I think when I started here, if I'm not mistaken, it was right around a $200,000 budget and now we're one and a half million,” Albert reflected. “And we had…just over 400 members and now we have just under 6,000.”

He adds, “…As much as some people give me a bunch of the credit, there's been a lot of people here have worked pretty daggone hard to make all this stuff happen.”

Albert said it was “not by any means an easy decision to make.”

Albert noted that he loves this Y and citied relationships, being a part of the plan to design, build and raise money for the facility and to put the hours in to make it happen. He said they have “a great staff who's as much family as anything else” and the support of the board.

It was extremely difficult, he would also tell The Herald, talking to the staff about it.

“…You know the people you come to work with every day that…work hard and are willing to follow your craziness 'cause they believe in a vision…that was a little harder to make that call than it was anyone else,” Albert said.

Asked what he thought was his biggest accomplishment, Albert assessed that if you were to ask people in the community, it would be the big, beautiful facility-to go from the Third Street facility to what they have.

“And, obviously, it's a major accomplishment to be able to…bring the people together to make it happen,” Albert said. “But…for me, when I think about what we're doing for the youth in this community, for the seniors in this community…seeing…our reach now because of the building…that we're engaging so many people, we're able to do what I consider Y work…our outreach programs with youth obesity, with…the swim programs at the schools…the first time offenders programs. Those are the things that I think are really having the greatest impact on this community.”

Albert will be going to a larger community with a larger Y. The local Y has a 22,000 square foot building; Scranton has an 85,000 square foot facility. Locally, the Y has a $1.5 million budget; Scranton's budget is $3.5 million.

Albert noted it's a new opportunity and new challenges.

He will be moving closer to some of his wife's family, though, who live just over an hour away.