Westerly Pawcatuck YMCA

Fantastic facility! It has everything you need: Gym, pool, basketball courts, classes, coffee shop, child care. A family friendly establishment!

The YMCA in Westerly is beautiful but crowded and too expensive. How can an average person afford the cost of membership there?
Why is the Y’s fee for membership double the cost of membership at other local «for-​profit» gyms? Are there too many managers and administrators? Being linked with Mystic and Arcadia YMCA doesn’t save money — they actually need more staff to coordinate everything.
I have been told they cost more because they have a swimming pool. But that doesn’t help me – I just want to use the gym. Couldn’t they offer a membership without use of the pool?
Have they forgotten their mandate to serve the public? Are they more of a country club and less of a service organization?

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am a Y employee in Brooklyn, NY and have an away membership that allows me 10 visits a year which I use when I visit my Mom who lives locally and is a member.
Both of the Brooklyn locations near me have had some renovations done in the last few years but this Westerly location is SO new and nice it kind of blows my mind. I know there was a lot of shuffling during the renovation/​build but it seems like it was totally worth it!
Sometimes we take the yoga classes downstairs and sometimes I use the cardio machines. I have always been very pleased with the yoga classes.
The only issue I have is sometimes it takes them awhile to sort out my away membership-​there used to be a binder but they have now been moved to a folder in a filing cabinet.

It’s the Y! Which means it’s great. It’s renovated and spacious. Sure it’s busy occasionally, but that’s a good sign! We have a family membership and love it. The child care is helpful as well!

What’s not to like?
The YMCA in Westerly is newly renovated & a great place for families. They have pretty competitive rates too especially when you consider how much you are offered.
My wife & I take spin class weekly & our 5 year old loves to spend time in the child watch. He always has a good time & actually looks forward to going. There is a 2 hour limit & I’m not sure how the other gyms in the area stack up in terms of child care but I’m willing to bet they’re not as good as the Y.
The Y has so many options available for exercising. There’s basketball courts & pools. The weight & cardio rooms are always kept clean & there’s plenty of equipment. It seems like they’re always adding new classes as I’ve heard rumors of them offering barre workouts soon.

Today, while my son (2) was in the care of your child watch, was locked in the bathroom alone. He was left there wet, confused and afraid. One of the child watch employees came down to inform me that my son had removed his pants because he had gone pee. Fine. I rushed up stairs from Studio A to the child watch to find my son locked in the bathroom. Now as you know the bathroom doesn’t have a lock. Someone was holding the door shut so he couldn’t get out. He was screaming his head off obviously frightened.
I have gotten over the fact that regardless that many other YMCA facilities help young children go to the bathroom instead your facility will not. But he is 2 years old and in potty training he needs help onto that toilet and all your employees do is walk him in to the room and then leave, shutting the door behind a 2 year old boy. So, he peed himself and then took off his pants and your employees wouldn’t let him out.
You and your employees seem to have little knowledge and regard for child development and psychology. You locking a young boy into the bathroom after he has peed makes him feel shamed and scared. Both are which my child should not feel or associated to potty training. Your employee heard his screams and did nothing, my guess is because you are so afraid of a lawsuit that it clouds your respect and logic for small children in need.
There are better ways. Your employees could have left the door open and held his hand in the bathroom until I got there. They could have left the door open while assisting him into the potty after he asked to go. There are many children and adults coming and going, so if it’s liability you fear I suggest you find better policies. Your fears of lawsuit have caused my son to have a traumatic experience at the hands of your employees.
I met with the VP of operations and he basically contested my experience and what I witnessed saying that my child was not locked in the bathroom. My child WAS shut in it not able to get out that equals locked. He has placed blame on my child for taking his pants off because he was wet. They can’t have an exposed child and it makes the staff uncomfortable. Which, yes I need to address as he ages but I will not be bullied. My son should not be barred from the child center. Your employee should have handled it differently. What would have happened if I was in the shower not just studio A? Kept him shut in there I suppose.
He stated that his employee did nothing wrong and because if their policy nothing will change. I’m appalled and disheartened at the little regard for my child’s experience by this facility.
He also requested I take my Facebook review down. He called it inappropriate. Well sir, what happened to my child was inappropriate and not acceptable.
It is too bad because the facility in Westerly is beautiful and my son loves the swimming pool. But beware of the childwatch in Westerly!

Living in a small town means very few gym options to chose from, but between the low price and the amazing classes, I picked the YMCA over the other local gyms hands down. Not only is it located right outside downtown Westerly, but after long weeks of renovation, there is ample parking! During the summer months my gym buddy and I would workout and then proceed into the Wilcox park for a nice relaxing cool down walk or jog.
I haven’t worked out on my own in months but this gym in my opinion is more for the ladies and seniors due to the lack of free weights that are available downstairs in a dingy room. The wellness center upstairs is well lit with many treadmills, bikes, rowing machines and ellipticals.
I am obsessed with the classes!!! I stared with a class called Zumba — aerobic dancing to salsa music, reggae, hip hop, etc and it definitely made me sweat but have fun at the same time! (learned a lot of dance moves, too!) Then I decided to try Body Sculpting — resistance bands, free weights, steps, and exercise balls. Polly is an amazing instructor and always tells us «If you don’t squeeze your butts ladies, no one will want to!». There are also many moderations to the exercises incase you’re a beginner. Lately, I’ve been taking spin (self explanatory) and kickboxing, which is definitely the most intense class I have ever taken and after weeks of participating, it still kicks my butt! There are also Silver Sneakers classes which are geared toward seniors.
I have become very toned and received many compliments on how good I look. The classes help me get myself to the gym since its a set time and the instructors are so great! They really push you to do your best and motivate you.
There are also water fountains, pools, racquetball rooms, basketball courts, sauna, locker rooms with showers and friendly staff!

I’ve been a member of the YMCA since I was 10 or so… Chances are from the years 2000 – 2003 if you took kiddie swim lessons, I was your instructor. Because of that traumatic experience, I have not been in either Y pool since 2004, so I can’t really speak for them. I can tell you the Buckley Pool is warm (ideally not because of children’s pee but who knows) and the Fuller Pool is the colder pool for teens, adults and the swim team.
This is a great place for kids and tweens! I took and taught swim lessons here, became certified in baby sitting, flirted with boys at the teen night sock hop and volunteered as a member of the leaders club for 2 years.
For the past two years, I use the YMCA only for the gym and the fitness classes. The two gyms themselves are pretty standard. (Standard is code for boring) Threadmills and weight machines. One of the gyms is cardio and weights, the other is just free weights. I don’t go into the free weights room because it feels like a boys club and I’m entirely unwelcome.
I’m a big fan of the classes. They don’t have a crazy large schedule since the YMCA is a nonprofit, but they do okay.
The fitness instructors are sooooo nice. Annalisa will kick your butt in Kickboxing twice a week. (DO NOT go to this class as your first class because you will never come back) Tamala teaches boot camp. In my first bootcamp class, my friend Rachel lay on the floor in the fetal position for 5 minutes and I couldn’t properly use stairs for 5 days. This class DOES get easier so keep it up. Tamala is so bubbly you’ll just want to keep torturing yourself with squats. Polly teaches an unreasonable number of classes from Body Sculpting to Step to Spin which accounts for her crazy amount of energy. She always cracks me up with her comment «Squeeze your buns! If you don’t do it in here, no one else will do it out there.»
And I’m not gonna lie, my buns are nice and squeezable after two months!