The Newton YMCA will be officially opening its doors on Nov. 14. To make this project possible there was over $5 million donated by the community and $10 million contributed by the YMCA. Many amenities and activities will be available to the public and job opportunities will be offered for high school students.

“We are actually hiring right now. We are hiring 16-year-olds and older for our kid zone. You can also be a certified lifeguard at the age of 16 and some of our sports programs will allow site supervisors and some of our officials to be 16,” Branch Director Tera Thomas said.

Students will have to meet specific requirements in order to be employed at the YMCA.

“For kid zone we are looking for students who having babysitting or leadership experience. Sports we are looking for youth that are knowledgeable and have a passion for working with kids and families,” Thomas said. “For aquatics you have to be a certified lifeguard, we also offer lifeguard certification classes, so if someone is interested in becoming a lifeguard and they don’t have a certification they can enroll in one of the YMCA certification classes and then there are monthly in-services that happen once you become a certified lifeguard to keep your certification current.”

The YMCA will be offering youth basketball and volleyball, while the Newton Recreation Center will still be offering both indoor and outdoor sports.

“Our goal and our hope is that we give even more kids in Newton the opportunity to play, so we hope that people will still play at the Rec and they will also play at the ‘Y’ and the Newton community will be a healthier place because of it,” Thomas said.

While the YMCA hopes that their facility as well as the Rec will be used, Thomas believes both have separate things to offer.

“Our goal and what we think is going to happen as a result of us being in the Newton community is we are going transform lives and we are going to strengthen the community,” Thomas said.