New YMCA aquatic center named for Fairfield supervisor Thornton

As a college student, Fairfield District Supervisor Frank Thornton attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom Aug. 28, 1963. It drew a quarter-million people, who came to advocate for equality in society and in the workplace for Blacks.

It would have been a monumental event even without a speech about a dream given by a Christian minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., but in the years since, it’s become known primarily for his iconic words.

Thornton wasn’t able to see King’s speech that day, but what he did see in the faces of those around him during the event’s rally has stuck with him ever since: Hope.

“I looked at the expressions on the faces of many people marching there and noticed feelings of serenity,” Thornton recalled recently. “Throngs of people, looking for something positive. People from all racial backgrounds.”

Thornton, who has served on Henrico’s Board of Supervisors since 1996 and was its first Black member, has carried that same outlook with him during his public service career. It’s one that dates back decades before he became a supervisor, to (among other efforts) his time as president of the Henrico Civic League in the early 1970s.

Thornton is known for displaying the eloquence, decorum and mastery of vocabulary befitting a college French professor – which it just so happens he was, at Virginia Union University, until his retirement several years ago.

But he’s also earned a reputation among county and community officials as a persistent champion for his district, which includes some of the poorest and most challenged neighborhoods in the county.

Tuesday night, that reputation was cemented – almost literally – in the history of the district and Henrico, when officials from the county and the YMCA of Greater Richmond surprised Thornton by naming the YMCA’s new aquatic center on Watts Lane after him during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The $10-million, 20,000-square-foot Frank J. Thornton YMCA Aquatic Center officially will open to the public Sept. 11. Henrico paid for the center’s construction, but it was built and will be operated entirely by the YMCA. All Henrico residents will be able to swim there for free during certain hours every Saturday and Sunday. Full-time monthly memberships will range from $20 (for teens) to $71 (for families).

The facility, YMCA of Greater Richmond President and CEO Tim Joyce said, “is an amazing bright spot for our communities” and “an amazing beacon of light and unity for us all.”

The center will allow the Y to continue its mission of building community relationships, said Gordon W. Fruetel, the chair of the local Y’s board of directors.

“But the progress being made here today is more than just relationships, It’s about opportunity – of access, equity, learning and success that should be afforded to all,” he said.

‘A fierce, tireless advocate’
Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas praised Thornton’s tireless work as a supervisor and his determination to oversee the construction of the county facilities that have sprouted along the “Laburnum Miracle Mile,” as Vithoulkas put it.

“He is a fierce, tireless advocate for Henrico and his district,” Vithoulkas said of Thornton, who years ago pushed for the construction of the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center after receiving a letter from a boy who asked for a place to play with his friends.

That center, with indoor and outdoor amenities, opened in 2011. It sits adjacent to the site of the new aquatic center and to the county’s eastern health department building – and just across Laburnum Avenue from the sparkling new Fairfield Area Library. It’s also just down the road from Harvie Elementary School, which opened in 2008.

In total, the county has invested about $75 million in those facilities, Vithoulkas said – and they likely wouldn’t exist if not for Thornton.

“Think about it – a kid wrote a letter, a facility was built,” Vithoulkas said.

Thornton had hoped that a swimming pool would be included with that facility, but when it wasn’t, he didn’t give up.

“This day has been, without question, a long time coming,” he said during Tuesday’s ceremony. “It is evidence, though, of the powers of the two Ps – the power of persistence and the power of partnership.”

He recalled advice in the form of a metaphor from his grandmother that has stuck with him across decades. She said, “If you can’t get a whole loaf of bread, then get a half.”

“This day, the aquatic center represents the other half of the loaf,” Thornton said. “I truly believe it will be transformational and life-saving.”

County officials hope that the facility, coupled with a similar one being built at Regency mall in partnership with the mall and NOVA Aquatics of Virginia, will help make Henrico “drown-proof” by providing public space to teach all second-graders – along with teens and adults – how to swim.

Said Vithoulkas: “We never again want to hear the wailing of a mother who has lost a child, as every child should be able to swim.”

Thornton and other county officials also hope that for families – and children – who live nearby, the growing collection of facilities along Laburnum Avenue in the Fairfield District (which also includes a recently rebuilt fire station near Laburnum and Mechanicsville Turnpike) might serve as an equalizer for a region that needs one.

The corridor includes some of the most economically depressed neighborhoods in the county and more than its share of violence and crime. Providing children and teens in the region with positive opportunities at a young age may help reverse those trends, officials hope.

For Thornton, the center that now bears his name is another step in that process.

“For years to come, this will be a place where this community grows in body, mind and spirit,” he told the audience Tuesday. “All I can say is. . . thank you. Although my name is up there, which I am forever grateful, a lot of this belongs to each of you.”